#NewsSpeak & #PoliticalSpeak: the waiting game

What is an appropriate time to wait for a wheelchair? #NewsSpeak #PoliticalSpeak


In last week's BMJ they mention that ~15% of NHS patients have to wait more than 12 months for a wheelchair and that over 50% of wheelchair users are likely to get a pressure sore from an ill-fitting wheelchair. 

Is this fair?



About a month ago I saw two patients in clinic. One patient had been waiting more than 8 months for a wheelchair and had to resort to buying a second-hand wheelchair on eBay that was clearly too small for them. In contrast, another patient came in with a brand new top of the range wheelchair that could help them stand erect. It had cost them over £8,000. The sad thing is that the NHS wheelchair this second patient had been supplied with was not been used. These anecdotes highlight the inequity of the system we are building. 


The wheelchair issue is simply the tip of the iceberg. The following piece from the BMJ tells us that things are likely to get worse. 

Should access to a NHS wheelchair be means tested to stop inappropriate waste?

Gareth Iacobucci. Exceptional requests for care surge as rationing deepens. BMJ 2017; 358 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j3188

Excerpts


..... Vautrey called for “an open and honest discussion” on this type of rationing. He urged NHS England to set clear guidelines on which treatments should be routinely available and which should require an individual request. “It’s clearly unfair for patients to be subjected to this postcode rationing, and it also adds further to GPs’ workload as they are called on to provide more and more evidence to support each application,” he told The BMJ.


The question we need to answer as a society is that the NHS funding squeeze sustainable? Is the current government trying to push the NHS over the abyss so that we 'society' accept a different funding model to save the NHS? The problem we are seeing on the coalface is an increasing number of our patients have difficulties accessing, what I would define as vital NHS services and more importantly vital social services. 

In summary, this is not a time to have a disabling disease in the UK and have to rely on social medicine and society to look after you. 

CoI: I work in the NHS and look after many patients with disabilities.

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