Disabled children in some areas have to wait over a year for a wheelchair, a national review into health care services has found.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) review, based on the views of families and data from Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), reveals access to health services for disabled children and young people varies greatly across England, with children having to wait between nine weeks to over a year for a manual wheelchair.
The average wait for a powered wheelchair was three months. One PCT reported children having to wait over a year.
The same was true for critical services such as speech and language therapy and physiotherapy, with children waiting on average of 12 weeks for a referral. In some areas this increased to eight months, or as one PCT reported, up to six years.
Another problem highlighted by disabled children and their families was that services were not joined up and different services did not work well together. They also said that they had not been consulted on how their care had been provided.
However, the review showed significant disparity between the experiences of disabled children and their families and the data supplied by primary care trusts.
Around half of PCTs claimed specialist services such as physiotherapy, speech and language and occupational therapy were always, or almost always, co-ordinated with other services, and 62 per cent said they involved disabled children and their families in the training and evaluation of people delivering their care.
Ruth Owen, chief executive of Whizz-Kidz, said, ‘We know there are an estimated 70,000 children in the UK who could benefit from the right mobility equipment. Providing a child with the right wheelchair at the right time enhances their lives, giving them not just mobility but independence.
‘In April, the Government’s Any Qualified Provider policy will give young wheelchair users the choice to be referred to providers like Whizz-Kidz, which will help transform the lives of hundreds more children and young people in the UK who are waiting to receive the mobility equipment right for them.’
The average wait for a powered wheelchair was three months. One PCT reported children having to wait over a year.
The same was true for critical services such as speech and language therapy and physiotherapy, with children waiting on average of 12 weeks for a referral. In some areas this increased to eight months, or as one PCT reported, up to six years.
Another problem highlighted by disabled children and their families was that services were not joined up and different services did not work well together. They also said that they had not been consulted on how their care had been provided.
However, the review showed significant disparity between the experiences of disabled children and their families and the data supplied by primary care trusts.
Around half of PCTs claimed specialist services such as physiotherapy, speech and language and occupational therapy were always, or almost always, co-ordinated with other services, and 62 per cent said they involved disabled children and their families in the training and evaluation of people delivering their care.
Ruth Owen, chief executive of Whizz-Kidz, said, ‘We know there are an estimated 70,000 children in the UK who could benefit from the right mobility equipment. Providing a child with the right wheelchair at the right time enhances their lives, giving them not just mobility but independence.
‘In April, the Government’s Any Qualified Provider policy will give young wheelchair users the choice to be referred to providers like Whizz-Kidz, which will help transform the lives of hundreds more children and young people in the UK who are waiting to receive the mobility equipment right for them.’
