Angry wheelchair-users protested at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh about the NHS’s decision to withdraw attendant-controlled electric wheelchairs.
The protesters were highlighting the fact that powered wheelchairs are no longer being issued to people who cannot control them themselves. For people like Quarriers resident Donna McKeown, a powered chair is a vital life-line to the outside world.
With complex physical and learning disabilities, including giantism, 25-year-old Donna is too heavy to be pushed around in a manual chair. She normally enjoys visiting friends and family, but when her £3000 chair broke down early last year, Donna was left housebound for months on end when the NHS refused to provide a replacement.
Another of Donna’s house-mates was in the same boat. Instead of going to day-centre or watching his team play at Cappielow, he was trapped at home for almost 11 months.
Their families are worried and angry – and so are the Quarriers staff who care for the pair. Donna’s mum Christine believes it is discrimination against her daughter. “She has a right to get out, just like everyone else. As a result of what’s happened, I believe her rights have been taken away.”
In the end, Quarriers provided Donna and her house-mate with the special wheelchairs they required – but it’s not possible for the charity to do that for every person it supports.
Quarriers’ Policy Officer, Kate Sanford says, “These chairs should be coming from the NHS. Money has been allocated to do this, but not enough. Quarriers has had to use supporters’ donations to plug this gap in provision. A report to the Scotttish Government is due to come out at the end of 2008, but in the meantime these already vulnerable people are left sitting at home, unable to go out.”
MSP Trish Godman has raised the issue in the Scottish Parliament and Quarriers now hopes all its supporters will ask their MSPs to back our ‘Going Nowhere’ campaign.
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