On Wednesday NHS England hosted a wheelchair budget marketing engagement event at the London Oval, an event to which Wheelfreedom, as a supplier, was invited to learn about the proposed changes and provide feedback. This provided an opportunity to learn more about the future of wheelchair services and how wheelchair budgets will look in the future.
The personal wheelchair budget is a resource made available by the NHS to support an individual in the purchase and choice of a wheelchair. This is done by providing those in need with an amount of money, in the form of a voucher, which can be used through retailers such as ourselves in order to acquire a powerchair which will benefit them. This amount is agreed between the individual, or their representative, and the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).
The changes, which were announced as being in development in May 2016, are designed to take each case on an individual level. They will make a big push in working closer to CCGs and other areas of government and care, to assess each person’s specific needs, in order to find the perfect product and the right budget, as opposed to just finding something that works temporarily. A major benefit of this new approach is that it enables the recipient to gain easier access to more specialised wheelchairs, which currently are not made available on the NHS wheelchair services. Although the new ideas may allow individuals to gain access to extra funds and they take a much more holistic approach as well as being more needs focused, it will still be a number of years before the changes can fully take effect, with an aim to assist 100,000 people through this scheme by 2020.
If you have any thoughts or questions for us here at Wheelfreedom, then please contact us through our facebook page, on twitter, or give us a call on 0800 025 8005.
