Thousands Wait for Wheelchairs

Official figures just published suggest thousands of disabled people face long delays to receive an NHS wheelchair.

In addition, one in five children who need a wheelchair are being forced to wait beyond the supposed maximum 18 weeks, as are almost one in six adults. Campaigners are likening the situation to a “postcode lottery” across England.

Delays

The NHS Constitution guarantees access to a wheelchair within 18 weeks but some 7,200 people who received a wheelchair between October and December had waited at least 19 weeks.

The charity Muscular Dystrophy UK says it knows of young adults who within the past year had waited more than eight months but NHS England does not record how long over the 18 week threshold patients have waited for a wheelchair.

The NHS England figures obtained by the Health Service Journal (HSJ) show that those with the greatest need for the equipment can face the longest waits. An estimated one in 50 Britons is believed to use a wheelchair to go to work or school, get to the shops, look after their children or undertake other tasks.

Access for All

The NHS are being urged by campaign groups to ensure equality of access for everyone who needs a wheelchair. Almost 40% of adults with high or specialist wheelchair needs, who are defined as “fully dependent on their wheelchair for all mobility needs”, wait more than nine weeks for the NHS to decide what kind of wheelchair they need. A further 37% wait more then nine weeks to then receive their equipment.

The data also shows that waits for wheelchairs lengthened significantly between April and June and the last three months of 2016, especially for adults.

NHS England said it accepted that some local NHS clinical commissioning groups needed to get wheelchairs to those in need more quickly.

A spokesman for NHS England commented: “While the majority of children and adults get their wheelchairs within a few weeks, there are parts of the country where local services are not sufficiently responsive and we fully agree that needs to change.”

The organisation has pledged to halve the number of children waiting more than 18 weeks by April 2018 and eliminate overly long waits for anybody by April 2019.