Has anyone received a wheelchair from the NHS recently? I mean the indoor electric type? I underwent assessment recently by some young lady whose age reflected her inexperience and who failed me! Now that my walking has deteriorated so much I reapplied for another wheelchair. The NHS Trust wrote back to me in July this year saying they would write to me again when they had an appointment available! And guess what; I’m still waiting in October! Their letter in July mentioned contacting the Red Cross for a temporary wheelchair - yes you’ve guessed, the RC do not do electric wheelchairs, only manual operated! So instead I contacted one of my charities (I have a pension with them) and they are looking into buying me the required chair. Am I impatient or right in expecting, whilst suffering PPMS, that the NHS should supply me with an electric wheelchair?
Hi sb, it appears to be a postcode lottery.
I live in London and Gp referred me for an NHS w/c. I didn’t want electric as I manage to walk around my flat and I use a mobility scooter on local trips… but I needed a w/c for trips out of local area & hospital appointments.
I got the appointment very quickly and when I got there and they saw how poor my walking is they immediately offered me an electric w/c. Took me a while to convince them I didn’t want one! So I got the manual w/c and they told me to contact them at any time if I changed my mind.
However there have been many posts on here of people trying to get electric w/c on the NHS without success, or waiting months and months for them.
Yes, you should be provided with an NHS electric w/c… but as you see it doesn’t always work that way. I’m not sure but I’ll bet that the cuts have something to do with it!
I’m glad a charity are helping out. If that doesn’t work out, you can apply for a grant from the MS Society. If you go into ‘Support’… top of this page… you’ll find the info somewhere.
Pat xx
it may help if you write to the MP for disabled
before we left the UK i had to cvontact many MP’s to sort out things and one or two were very helpful google what one you want
cheers
The NHS seem very reluctant to give out electric wheelchairs at the mo. I was offered one that didn’t meet my needs, so they gave me vouchers towards the cost of getting one elsewhere. I was then told not to use the vouchers without contacting them first as they didn’t have staff available to process them!
I ended up getting a chair through Motability.
Heather