Wheelchair service feedback report

Healthwatch Hampshire undertook a survey on people's experience of the West Hampshire, Southampton and Isle of Wight Wheelchair and Repair Service after hearing people's concerns and the provider changing hands.  They spoke to 114 people altogether, including sevice users, parents, carers and professionals.

The right wheelchair is crucial to every aspect of people’s health and wellbeing. Many people spoke about being grateful for their NHS Wheelchair, saying that it had changed their life.

Long waits were reported as occurring at every stage of the process (referral to assessment, assessment to delivery, delivery to handover.)

Waiting a long time for a wheelchair negatively effects people’s physical and mental health. Waiting for the right wheelchair affects children’s family life, and their social and educational development. 

For some people by the time they received their wheelchair, their needs had changed, and it was no longer suitable for them. This issue was felt acutely by children and young people, some of whom had already outgrown their wheelchair by the time it arrived.  People with degenerative illnesses also felt that the service was not able to respond to changes in their condition promptly enough. 

People said the service did not hold sufficient stock of widely used essential items, such as lap belts, chest harnesses, foot straps and cushions, which had to be ordered in. These additional orders took some time to be received.

Poor communication was a central theme of the feedback received from service users, referrers, and partner agencies.  There wasn't enough focus on the ‘customer facing’ element of the service with people not knowing what was happening with their case for long periods.

Most people were not given time scales or updated about how their case was progressing. This meant they resorted to chasing up by regularly calling the office to find out what was happening with their equipment.

Service users said Ross Care therapists and engineers were friendly and polite. They appreciated it when staff listened to their needs and spent time explaining how to use their equipment at handovers. Many people also said they felt that Ross Care clinical staff were knowledgeable and professional.

Most people were happy with the quality of the equipment when it arrived. Some pointed out that organising additional parts and adjustment, meant it took a long time to get a wheelchair that ‘fully met their needs.

People fed back that getting adjustments to their wheelchair was difficult, they said that there was no easy route to ask for them and that it often took a long time to get them dealt with.

There was a mixed response to the repairs service. Some people said repairs ‘happened quickly’ and were easy to arrange, while others said they took a long time. Some said they felt repairs could be more consistent and better organised, as appointments were cancelled without informing people, or engineers turned up when they weren’t expected. People also reported that their notes weren’t up to date which caused problems for engineers doing the repairs.

Service users said they are not consistently given opportunities to feedback about the service. They are not sure how to provide feedback and lack confidence that it leads to changes.