Wheelchair Services in York - Learning from People’s Experiences
Download (PDF 1.14 MB)Summary of report content
Healthwatch York designed several focus groups and a survey to help understand people’s experiences of using wheelchair services in York, by highlighting both the issues faced, and the positive experiences. After the issues with wheelchair services were recognised at national level, and a member of public raised concerns about the waiting times and reassessment and delivery of new chairs, Healthwatch was asked to look into this and feed back to the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee with their findings.
Healthwatch attended a few small focus groups and carried out a survey to find out about people’s experiences, which was shared with partners and distributed to local care homes.
Common themes identified in the survey were to do with the Wheelchair Centre. The main issue that was immediately apparent was the long waiting times in between chairs. Those who seemed especially frustrated with the service were those with children who used wheelchairs, as their health is more at risk due to their changing needs. Also, staff members are perceived as working their hardest to help, for example by providing a buggy loan in the long waiting times between new chairs being provided.
36.36% respondents felt they could not recommend the service. The report contains more details of the focus groups and surveys and a one to one with a parent of a wheelchair user.
Healthwatch made several recommendations to the NHS Vale of York CCG on ways to improve the service. The report includes detailed findings from the focus groups and the surveys.