11/01/08 - Wheelchair Service gains budget line in Spending Review

On behalf of users and carers The Scottish Disability Equality Forum, who are supported in this respect by PAMIS, welcomes the fact that the Scottish Government has recognised the value of the NHS Wheelchair Service by identifying separately in its Spending Review extra spending on the Service to help implement the Recommendations of the NHS Steering Group in March 2006 following a Petition to the Scottish Parliament.

Spending Provision

Contained in the Scottish Government’s Spending Review provision was made for �4m in 2008/9, �6m in 2009/10 and �6m in 2010/11.

Funding Impact on the Service

The independent Review of the NHS Wheelchair & Special Seating Service (W&SS) announced in June 2006 reported that the Service up to 2005 was underfunded by �2.4m arising from the general uplift in NHS Health Board budgets from 1996.� The Scottish Executive provided an extra �1m for the Service, this year 2007/8, to help reduce waiting times.

The �4m announced for 2008/9 therefore is in fact only �3m extra to the Service over 2007/8 but recognising the underfunding highlighted in the Review Report the Spending Review just puts the Service where it ought to have been had Health Boards ensured that the Service kept pace with annual uplifts.

Origins of Wheelchair Services:

Services in Scotland were initially supplied by the War Ministry to supply injured servicemen with mobility devices. In 1948 the service was extended to NHS patients, and there are now five Mobility Centres in Scotland (Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness), the aim of which is to "contribute to the rehabilitation of people resident in Scotland." Until 1996 the Service was run by the National Services Agency before the duties and responsibilities were passed over to Health Boards who carried on and financed the same structure

Since 1948, although there have been huge changes in society, developments in wheelchair services have been few.

Resourcing has been so inadequate over the past sixty years such that little account has been taken of the real life needs of people who use wheelchairs and specialist seating systems.

This is evidenced by the fact that there are so many wheelchairs being used and re-used in Scotland today which were designed fifty years ago. They are poorly designed, provide no comfort and inherently make a very clear statement about how much our society values children and adults with physical disabilities.

Why is having the right wheelchair so important?

It is to minimise the effects of someone's disability and to enable that person and their carer to be able to function as well as they can-----not to become more disabled than they and the family already are by the equipment they are provided with, or denied, which is commonplace. It is so that the person can be as comfortable, well supported and as correctly positioned as possible, so that the person can function at their best and not incur additional injury and health problems as a result of unsuitable equipment.

It is so that the person can be as mobile and independent to carry out the day to day living tasks as is possible and be able to take advantage of employment and educational opportunities as well as participate in social and leisure activities like other members of the community. It is so that the person can be seen as a person and not be defined by the wheelchair.

The NHS is about improving the quality of life.

Duty and Responsibility

To users and carers the Service is cluttered. Although the Service is the duty of Health Boards the money does not follow the user.� There is no correlation between the money paid to the Wheelchair Centres and the provision of the Service within a Board’s area. There appears to be no Funding Model or Service Level Agreement by Boards to ensure that the best is being done for the users within their area.� Given the other pressures that are on Health Boards it is no wonder that the W&SS does not get the attention it deserves when especially it does not come within the “Waiting Times Initiative”. A mobility aid is often not seen essentially as a “health issue” and therefore is not seen as a mainstream health issue.

Project Board

MSPs will be aware that a Project Board has been established charged with the duty of implementing the W&SS Steering Group’s Recommendations. While it will oversee the use of the Spending Review monies on the basis of need the over-rideing issue is how to ensure that Health Boards make provision both during and beyond the Spending Review period for the ongoing needs of this Service and the end users.

What we need from all MSPS

The provisions within the Spending Review has to be seen as a FLOOR NOT A CEILING. The Independent Review by Frontline consultants reckoned that the Service needs an extra �15.8m spread over three years.

It is recognised that money alone will not resolve all of the issues of the Service but users and carers would benefit from a nationally run service, financed nationally that would provide a consistent service throughout Scotland that would be equitable, transparent and accountable and would make sense to help declutter the NHS in Scotland.�

Please support users and carers by pressing for this extra and continuing finance.

�� Copyright Scottish Disability Equality Forum 2003-2008