Girl, 6, gets new wheelchair after year-long wait

A six-year-old girl who is unable to walk and is non-verbal due to a rare genetic condition has a new wheelchair after a year-long wait.

Alba had outgrown the wheelchair she had used since she was three and had been measured for a new chair, but the company commissioned to supply it was replaced, leading to a backlog of cases and many users facing long waits for equipment.

Getting Alba ready for school had proved challenging for parents Dan and Melissa, who said she was in pain and "just did not want to be in her chair".

"She seems so much happier within herself now," Dan added.

Mum Melissa, from Clay Cross in Derbyshire, said: "Before, she was just backing off, you could tell the anxiety and the worry with her when she was about to go to school that something was not quite right."

"And now she's beaming when she's going to school, she's ready for the day and she's just a lot more engaged."

The contract to supply the wheelchair was previously held by AJM Healthcare, but it was changed after a report by Healthwatch Derbyshire highlighted users and carers who had experienced long waiting times for new wheelchairs and parts.

NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) oversees the supply of chairs and awards contracts to a manufacturer to provide them.

The contract was awarded to Blatchford Mobility in April, but this was only for new cases and 2,018 people waiting for wheelchairs were not transferred to the provider.

Blatchford said it had gone "above and beyond" to support people who were previously waiting for chairs, such as Alba, who lives with HNRNPH2 neurodevelopment disorder.

Laura Harby, 31, from Belper, lives with a number of medical conditions including osteoporosis and an Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a rare inherited condition that affects connective tissue.

Harby, who was also referred to the previous supplier, has had her current wheelchair for more than seven years and her family believe it no longer suits her needs.

She has been waiting since June 2024 but said she is yet to receive an update from Blatchford, despite attempts to contact them.

"It's been absolute agony," she said.

"Obviously, I'm going to be in pain on a day-to-day basis anyway, but I'm in even more pain because it's got no support, the core strength, it's got no suspension".

Harby, who attends appointments at St Mark's Hospital in London every six months, added: "To me, it feels like it's the basic of the basics. It's OK for somebody who would perhaps use it for 10 minutes at a time; not somebody sat in a hospital waiting room for two or three hours".

Anthony Peddle, 54, from Ripley, who won gold in powerlifting at the 2000 Sydney Paralympic Games, has also faced a long wait for a specialist pressure cushion for his wheelchair.

The 54-year-old was assessed by AJM Healthcare last January and said despite "many communications" with Blatchford, he has felt "fobbed off with excuses regarding the takeover".

He added: "My current cushion is causing me a lot of discomfort, mainly due to the fact that I work during the day and spend all that time in my wheelchair and not able to transfer to a comfortable chair until the evening."

The ICB said that while it cannot comment on specific cases, the number of outstanding cases has fallen to 927 and it aims to bring the remaining list down significantly in the near future.

A spokesperson said it "aims to prioritise those with the highest clinical needs and is building capacity to help speed things up".

Beth Pitcairn, service excellence manager at Blatchford, said: "Since inheriting a waiting list of more than 2,000 patients from the previous supplier of the Derbyshire Wheelchair Service, we have worked hard to bring this list down so that patients get the support they need.

"While our original contract was only for new cases, we went above and beyond to see additional patients within existing capacity constraints, and urged NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) to support our recommendations for additional resources.

"After much discussion, the ICB has ow formally approved these proposals, enabling us to expand clinical, technical and support capacity."

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