Wheelchair worry for young disabled people | Letters

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Paul Sagar writes eloquently about his experience of the wheelchair service as a well-educated adult, with some access to funds (‘I wish I could say I kept my cool’: my maddening experience with the NHS wheelchair service, 2 December). My 38-year-old daughter was born with a similar level of spinal injury. A wheelchair that is used all day, every day disintegrates after about five years, so she has had to reapply for one seven times. Imagine trying to attend school while negotiating to obtain this essential equipment.

Statistics that support a high level of satisfaction with the wheelchair service do not reflect the experiences of younger disabled people who cannot walk or stand. Disability increases with age, and the typical wheelchair user is an elderly person, often a part-time user who can walk indoors. This may account for the satisfaction with the wheelchair service by older users, who are less dependent on a wheelchair than younger users.
Chris Burgess
Stockport, Greater Manchester

• I was taken with Paul Sagar’s sorry ordeal with the NHS’s wheelchair services and his belief that it made no sense for it to be privatised. He wanted his particular needs to be met by an accountable public service. It was disappointing then to read that he thinks it makes sense for other services, such as cleaning, to be privatised.

The internet is littered with reports about the failures of hospital cleaning contracts and private contractors over the past 40 years. Perhaps he should have considered the old and vulnerable people whose lives were affected by dirty hospitals and superbugs before rushing to such a judgment. Those people probably would also have wanted their needs – including for many simply the need to stay alive – met by an accountable public service.
Charlie Hislop
Netley Abbey, Hampshire

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