"Lack of suitable mobility equipment at hospital"

I attended Glasgow Queen Elizabeth neuro department with my adult daughter. My daughter attends here every 8 weeks for a medical procedure and has done for the last couple of years. She has quadriplegic cerebral palsy, is a full time wheelchair user who requires 100% care and assistance at all times and needs to be hoisted from her chair for her procedure.

Not for the first time we turned up this time to be told that they did not have the appropriate mobile hoist that she requires to transfer her to the treatment table. The treatment cannot be carried out if she is not transferred out of her seat. They said they did have an alternative hoist, however that is not compatible with the sling my daughter uses and has in-situ at all times in her wheelchair. This then makes it not an option at all. I ended up having to lift my adult daughter, who has extremely high tone and can’t assist in any way, out of her chair and onto the table. This is extremely dangerous to us both. 

After the treatment, we attempted using the hoist with a borrowed sling to transfer my daughter back into her wheelchair and it did not work at all. The sling was not appropriate and ended up with my daughter extremely distressed, terrified and in a terrible seated position that she had to stay in for a 45 minute journey home. I then had to lift her out of the chair when we got home as the sling we had borrowed was not compatible with the hoist we have at home.

The sling my daughter uses is the sling that is (I believe) provided to most people in our area who require to be transferred by hoist. As stated previously, this is a situation that we come up against time and again when attending hospital appointments, normally there is no hoist at all however this time it was a hoist that was of no use. The staff are aware of the type of hoist required but there seemingly was not one in the whole hospital in working order. 

This is a diabolical situation that a young woman is unable to access medical care safely due to something as simple as an appropriate fully working piece of equipment not being available. This is something that should be in every department for use by patients to give them the same access to medical care as any mobile patient.

This left my daughter extremely distressed by the whole experience and it is something that could so easily be rectified if anyone took any time or interest to do this and look at this from the position of a patient with mobility needs.