NHS wastes ‘more than a year’ on latest bid to improve wheelchair access

The NHS has been accused of spending more than a year on its latest bid to improve wheelchair services, with only two conferences and a series of working groups to show for it. Some critics feel they have done little more than pay lip service to the views of service users.

The current service sees long waiting lists with many disabled people being left without the right wheelchairs for long periods of time. This latest installment is the last in a long line of failed bids to improve the service.

The two conferences over the last two years have failed to produce the desired wheelchair charter and have not pushed through tough new standards for NHS wheelchairs, evac chairs and other related mobility equipment, leaving many disappointed.

 

Election issues

The run up to the election has reached a fevered frenzy, with speeches and interviews all discussing the key political hot potatoes. One of which is very much the state of the nation’s healthcare services and disability rights.

Over the past few weeks, we have seen UKIP fail to back key parts of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Whilst they say they do support article 19, which states the “equal right of all persons with disabilities to live in the community, with choices equal to others”, they have not formally backed other articles in the convention.

Meanwhile, Conservative Health Minister Mark Harper has strongly suggested that people with mental health problems who refuse treatment could have their out of work benefits cut. However, the party has so far refused to confirm this statement.

 

Lib Dems bus horror

In related political news, the disabled president of the Lib Dems has complained of her outrageous treatment by a bus conductor who refused to ask a young dad to move his child’s buggy out of the wheelchair space on a near-empty London bus.

The conductor refused to engage with the buggy’s owner and told Baroness Brinton that she would have to wait for the next bus. She was left very angry by the incident, with a number of witnesses also shocked at her treatment.

See you next month for another news round up.