"Wheelchair services assessment"

My husband has been in the stroke ward at PRI for the past 3 months and was told he would be fitted with a wheelchair, which was duly ordered. When the wheelchair arrived, it was incorrect as it was a self propelled chair and he only has the use of one arm. 

The chair sat for a week as OT asked for a new chair to be sent but instead someone from wheelchair services came to assess my husband. When they arrived last week they got the self propelled chair and said it was fine.  They didn’t take the time to ask any questions about my husband's condition and instead asked him questions about how many children he had.  They also told him to breath in when trying to put the safety belt on & when my husband tried to let her know that he didn’t want it on, the response was I have to as it’s part of their job.

It would appear that ticking all the boxes was more important than what was best for my husband.  My husband also has aphasia so couldn’t answer any of the questions or get his point listened to. I attempted to say that he is a very strong person who doesn’t like everything done for him & that he would attempt to use the wheels, even though he only has the use of one arm, but this seemed to fall on deaf ears.

We feel that we were railroaded into keeping the chair as they didn’t seem to be listening to any of my concerns but did agree to get smaller wheel put on the chair. I don’t know when this will happen.   We have been using the chair for the past week and true to form my husband does try to use the wheels (mostly in a circle) and I also feel that the handles are too low for me to push the chair. It is really meant for the user to propel himself more than be pushed but my needs (which are as important as I will be the main carer) were never addressed at the assessment .