Baroness Grey-Thompson and Wheelchair Leadership Alliance fight for change
A national group of wheelchair users and advocates led by Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson DBE is heading to Parliament Square to call for an improvement to wheelchair services in England before more users are adversely affected by the poor levels of service present across England.
- The RIGHT CHAIR RIGHT TIME RIGHT NOW campaign aims to raise awareness of the vast differences in quality of wheelchair services across the country
- The Wheelchair Charter encourages MPs, CCGs, the general public and others to pledge their support to the campaign and to take positive action to help bring about improvements
- The 10 point charter lists criteria that wheelchair services should strive to fulfil in order to provide great care
The Wheelchair Leadership Alliance, chaired by Baroness Grey-Thompson, is a commitment group tasked with improving wheelchair services for users across England. The group is bringing together MPs and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), as well as other healthcare professionals and senior figures who will be vital to bring about success, at a launch event at Speaker’s House on Monday 20 July.
The event will highlight the issues facing wheelchair users in getting the right chair at the right time and will launch the wheelchair charter and national improvement campaign.
It is crucial that wheelchair users receive the right chair at the right time in order to lead a normal life but many users often face severe delays to receive their chair; this leads to harm and waste.
Additionally, there are no set standards for budget per user and there is no current clear idea of what is spent on wheelchair services in NHS England, leading to widespread confusion and varied levels of service for users across the country.
Baroness Grey-Thompson, who is also EFDS's Honorary President, said:
“For too long wheelchair services have been inadequate and it is time that wheelchair users are listened to and provided a proper service, rather than being marginalised. The huge variation in quality of services across the UK is astounding, and means a huge proportion of wheelchair users are left immobilised, frustrated and ignored.
“Now we want to get this issue on the radar of people who can influence change and also get them behind the campaign by urging them to pledge their support to the Charter.”
In addition to healthcare professionals and CCGs, members of the public can pledge their support to the Wheelchair Charter and campaign online through the Alliance’s website www.rightwheelchair.org.uk.
The Alliance hopes support from people in positions of influence as well as the general public will help bring about change faster.
The charter is a 10 point document which outlines the key principles that wheelchair services should aspire to and can be accessed through the Wheelchair Leadership Alliance website.
