Wheelchairs don’t last forever, brakes and handles get worn out and break, seats get worn and fail to provide adequate support. So you request a review with the care providers who look after your needs. You do that in January and you wait until an appointment is made for you on July 15th. Those who should know agree that the handles, brakes and seat all need to be replaced and on August 23rd (reports take time to write!) the health board receive that request. They approve that request on August 25th, a quick turnaround for the much maligned HSE. Here’s where the story gets exciting, not. The P.O. (Purchase Order) goes to a company in Belfast that also has an office in Dublin. Belfast is a place far, far away from Dublin. The parts are ordered in, that takes 6 weeks.
In the meantime the brakes become a major issue, they release without warning and eventually result in Sam falling from his wheelchair as he transfers from the car into the chair. Humiliating, painful, unnecessary. We call our care provider on September 18th, they look for the serial number from the chair. But the parts were ordered? Why look for the serial number? To take the heat off a Sales Rep is sent out to do an interim job on the faulty breaks. They are so tight that they won’t release without brute force now.
Again we follow up with our care providers last week; ‘Oh we thought that was sorted’ was the return email. We’ll ring the guy who did the temporary repair and get him to call you. He did that this morning and said the he doesn’t know anything about the parts, he doesn’t have a P.O. Remember the company he works for has an office in Dublin and Belfast but their computers aren’t linked up, sure why would they be, it’s only the 21st century! We call the HSE, they provide all of the missing information, it’s not their job to do this but they are pretty shocked to hear that we’re still getting the run around. Our care providers are still following things up…
The parts are in Belfast since last week. The Managing Director of this company says that he’ll have to see when he can schedule an engineer to fit these parts. He’s getting paid to do this by the HSE. And so today November 27th, Sam has a wheelchair that doesn’t provide him with adequate support and is dangerous.
I identified the HSE as they have been hugely helpful to us, not just in this situation, but in all of our dealings with them. I’m afraid to identify the people involved in this, Sam’s care provider and the company supply the parts and labour because we have nowhere else to go. And maybe that would make things worse, but right now I’m not sure how…