Following a fall in April my GP referred me to the community OT. He faxed the referral through on the understanding it would be acted on immediately. Eighteen weeks later they contacted me by phone and I got a visit two weeks later. Twenty weeks!
i was assured something would be done about the front door step. Measurements were taken. Five weeks later she was back and took the measurements again and I was supplied with a bed handle. That’s twenty five weeks. The following week another one called to check the bed handle and have another look at the step. This one announced that the work was going to be means tested and as we own our home (with a mortgage) I’d have to fund it myself, but that was only her opinion, not an official refusal. So still waiting.Twenty six weeks.
Today, after a further seven weeks I get another call. Thirty three weeks and counting! They think they might have found a step to put inside the front door so that the step into the hall isn’t so high, but they need to measure it first. She’s coming to do that next week. Thirty four weeks from the referral, and I don’t imagine for one moment that the measurements have changed since the other two visits!
Sorry for the moan. Until I was hit with MS I worked full time for over thirty years, making tax and NI contributions. Am I now asking or expecting too much from the NHS?
No Flowerpot you most certainly are not asking too much. its disgraceful the way people are treat when they are at their most vulnerable. I understand that some people do abuse benefits etc but I firmly believe we should all be granted the curtesy of belief in our request for assistance when we need it.
Have you considered letting your MP know? It’s amazing sometimes how things change when MPs become involved. If nothing else they need a kick up the backside for their incompetence. How long does it take to say “yes we can help” or “sorry but we can’t offer help at this time”
Hi, oh yes I contacted my MP by email, not for the first time I might add. He did afford me the courtesy of a reply, and a lady from his office contacted me by phone and asked me what i expected them to do. In fact they did nothing.
My experience with OT was similar to start with - then it got better.
I contacted my council way back in the summer of last year just looking for advice on improving access to our house. Really, I was looking for info on putting a long slalom ramp from the front gate to the house.
“Someone will call you back”. Yeah, right
Several weeks later, a daughter posted some comments on the council Facebook page.
The first response was to give me a phone number to call (see “Someone will call you back”).
But, soon after, I had a call from an OT to make an appointment.
then she was back with a contractor to measure uo for some handrails.
Then a short delay, and another contractor turned up to install them.
Now, I could not manage without them. Cost to me - nothing. There is a limit, the cost came in under the limit, council paid.
However, they could do nothing about the slalom ramp - “We have to deal with the situation as it is, and you are not in a wheelchair just yet”
No, you’re not being unreasonable. I too paid tax & NI for over 30 years before losing my job. Fell between too stools, as too ill to start actively looking for another (hence no JSA), yet not ill enough to qualify for ESA, PIP etc. After all, I look fine, I can wash, dress and feed myself, walk, pick up a coin, pick up a carton of milk - all the stupid stuff they base it on - it just so happens that I do all this whilst feeling like I have permanent flu’! Also, because I was sensible enough (or was that stupid?) to take out savings, investments, critical illness etc, while I was still well and working, I have money. So if I ever need modifications to the house, I will be expected to fund the lot, even though that money - and the very small income from it - is potentially ALL I have to live on, for the rest of my life! Now they have changed entitlement to a full state pension from 30 years to 35, I won’t get it. Despite working over 30 years, I have two years when my employer didn’t make any contributions for me, and it’s much too long ago to make them up - the company went bust anyway. So I’ve only got 29 years out of the needed 35 - unless I return to work for another six years! I realise I will still gate a state pension of some sort - presumably 29/35 of it - but I’ll never get the full amount.
It’s all very unfair. My brother (bless him!) is under the impression anyone needing disability adaptations gets it all handed to them on a plate. He has no clue it’s means tested!