Cat Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce the waiting time to receive an electric wheelchair through NHS Wheelchair Services after being determined eligible to receive one.
Alistair Burt
No data is currently available in relation to waiting times for wheelchairs for 2014-15. A new national data collection has been introduced (from July 2015) to all clinical commissioning groups to allow for transparency and benchmarking their services. Data has so far been published for quarter 2 and quarter 3 2015/16. However, this is a new collection and does not yet provide an opportunity to draw national or regional comparisons.
The new dataset is part of the work that NHS England is taking forward in partnership with service users, carers and others to lay the foundations for improvement across the country. A tariff for wheelchairs will enable commissioners to move away from simple contracts, and so increase efficiency and better align resources with service users’ needs; support and resources for clinical commissioning groups will help them improve their commissioning of wheelchair services.
