Wheelchair Alliance Vows to Improve Services

With around 1.2 million wheelchair users in the UK, there’s an urgent need for wheelchair services to be developed and improved.  A new alliance, formed in March, is tackling this with Paralympic athlete, Baroness Grey-Thompson, at the helm.

Key Issues

The Wheelchair Leadership Alliance was created to highlight key issues regarding services for wheelchair users and to suggest and implement improvements.  Many wheelchair users currently face long wait times for a wheelchair or have to make do with one that may not properly suit their needs which can led to further medical problems.  The development of the Alliance is key in addressing this issue and many others that affect wheelchair users across the country.

Getting it Right

The first action on the Alliance’s agenda is the launch of the campaign ‘RIGHT CHAIR, RIGHT TIME, RIGHT NOW’.  This campaign offers valuable information about the lack of services available to wheelchair users and highlights how this fails to meet the needs of the people who rely on theirs everyday.

“There’s not even a single national data collection on how many people need wheelchairs in this country.”

Baroness Grey-Thomson, who uses a wheelchair and fully supports the campaign, said: “We seem to know how long everyone has to wait in A&E every week, yet there’s not even a single national data collection on how many people need wheelchairs in this country, let alone how long they have to wait for one, or whether it’s the right chair.”

The Wheelchair Leadership Alliance intend to work with professionals and partnerships across various wheelchair support services to help reduce delays, harm and waste in wheelchair provision.

More information about the Alliance can be found here, or click to see the Right Chair, Right Time, Right Now campaign.