Wednesday 4 March 2009
Disabled children across the UK let down by the NHS
The NHS is failing in its duty to provide all disabled children, from across the UK, with the vital equipment they need to live happy, independent lives and is forcing families to pay for their own wheelchairs, electric beds and hoists, driving them into financial hardship. This is according to new figures released today by the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign.
Equipment shortfall: How disabled children are being failed includes new data gathered from a patient survey and through Freedom of Information requests to Primary Care Trusts (PCT). It reveals that disabled children are subject to a postcode lottery of equipment provision and have to wait months to receive basic vital equipment.
The figures show that:
- disabled children in the UK can wait for an average of up to two years to receive a powered wheelchair from the NHS
- one in three of the UK's children, with muscular dystrophy who need to use a wheelchair receive no NHS funding for this piece of equipment
- the postcode lottery of NHS equipment provision means that there is a difference in waiting times for equipment of up to 11 months for disabled children living just four miles apart
- almost all PCTs and Health Boards state that the average cost of a powered wheelchair is about £2,000. However the Joseph Patrick Trust, a grant giving organisation, calculates that the true average cost is £17,500. In reality £2,000 would only pay for the most basic powered wheelchair, which would not meet the needs of most disabled children
Philip Butcher, Chief Executive of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, said:
Today's figures are nothing short of a national scandal. It is a damning indictment of the NHS that so many families across the UK are forced to rely on charities or be driven into financial hardship just to receive vital, life-improving equipment for their disabled children.
It's time the NHS stops relying on charities to fill the gaps left by it's inadequate funding.
Key national data shows that:
- some Health Boards do not provide electric profiling beds for children under 12. This results in parents being forced to wake up every hour every night to turn their child in bed to prevent breathing difficulties and pressure sores developing
- a shocking 50% of PCTs will not fund the full cost of a powered wheelchair for a disabled child
- disabled children in England are forced to wait, on average, almost five months to receive a wheelchair from the NHS
