Mobility Scooters - MP's Urge Action

Mrs_Ryan

Unity wrote: »

I hadn't realised that there had been more than a couple of incidents involving scooters :eek:. Certainly the one I saw on the local news was where a scooter was driven from the platform onto the Metro carriage and straight out of the other side where the driver went head first onto the track! Thankfully there wasn't another train approaching at that point, but if there had been, I hate to think of the flashbacks the driver would be enduring now, not to mention the passengers on the train who witnessed this.

Has Nexus stopped providing the Taxi Voucher scheme too? I used the one last year - where you pay £5 each six months and get £100 worth of vouchers, it may be worth checking into. Last week I also saw a scooter user waiting at the bus stop outside the hospital, I wasn't aware this was allowed, but I suppose it is safer with having no exit door opposite like a Metro train. Is it possible for your mum to use the disabled friendly buses? No one should be left housebound and it's certainly worth taking up with the local politicians when they come canvassing for her vote .

Yep, they've stopped that. Now you basically get a voucher for £2 off a taxi ride with NODA only :eek: from where my mum lives into town that would have cost her about £25 return :eek: she does get ONE free taxi a week now (after the local MP made threats about funding for some big thing Nexus were doing being withdrawn if they didnt sort it out) but trying to get that is dam near impossible. We contacted Stagecoach North East and they said they wouldnt carry her scooter. Fortunately (or not really if you see what I mean) my brother who is strong and fit is now studying instead of working and able to push my Mum's manual chair so she can get out a bit more (and I always take her out when I'm home but thats not often)
but we do know of a lot of people left totally housebound - you're right, I'm sure my mum will definitely voice her displeasure, she doesnt mince her words :rotfl:

Oscar_The_Grouch

Unity wrote: »

I use a wheelchair when I have no alternative (crutches as often as I can) - and couldn't use one of these scooters even if I wanted to as my cervical spine and arms are affected, to the extent that I'm not even allowed to self-propel.

Hi Unity.

I have multiple displaced cervical discs that mean I'm not allowed to self propel too. I also have bad legs to the point where I fall over lots!

I have one of THESE scooters (but the website is not where I bought it from - it just has a good picture). Having 4 wheels with independent suspension means that it's stable and takes the bumps out of the pavement that would jar my neck in my wheelchair.

The arm rest adjust up and the steering column comes down so that you can have your arms resting whilst you go along. The speed adjustment is such that I can put it on "dead slow" for moving it around tight spaces and the UK model has been adjusted to a max speed of 6mph, so I can "run" out of the way if necessary.

The seat back is quite high, so it gives me good support and most importantly, it's very comfortable!!

Unity wrote: »

From the insurance aspect, I would suspect that Shopmobility would (if they are not already covered) have to put insurance in place for those that hire them, maybe Oscar can enlighten me on this ? What about where they are hired out within a privately owned shopping centre like say The Metrocentre Gateshead - does the owner not have a duty of care to everyone using the premises?

Absolutely right. Shopmobility have insurance for all their scooters, premises, employees, volunteers and members of the public. You'd have to check with the independent companies, but they would be silly to let people out on one of their scooters without the proper insurance in place! Having said that, The Metrocentre Gateshead appears to be Shopmobility on their website.

Trialia

*nods* I'm another who couldn't self-propel - my shoulders dislocate very easily, and my other arm joints nearly as much. Drives me crazy that so many people assume I'm just being lazy by using a motorised scooter rather than a manual.

Unity

Oscar_The_Grouch wrote: »

Hi Unity.

I have multiple displaced cervical discs that mean I'm not allowed to self propel too. I also have bad legs to the point where I fall over lots!

I have one of THESE scooters (but the website is not where I bought it from - it just has a good picture). Having 4 wheels with independent suspension means that it's stable and takes the bumps out of the pavement that would jar my neck in my wheelchair.

The arm rest adjust up and the steering column comes down so that you can have your arms resting whilst you go along. The speed adjustment is such that I can put it on "dead slow" for moving it around tight spaces and the UK model has been adjusted to a max speed of 6mph, so I can "run" out of the way if necessary.

The seat back is quite high, so it gives me good support and most importantly, it's very comfortable!!



Absolutely right. Shopmobility have insurance for all their scooters, premises, employees, volunteers and members of the public. You'd have to check with the independent companies, but they would be silly to let people out on one of their scooters without the proper insurance in place! Having said that, The Metrocentre Gateshead appears to be Shopmobility on their website.

Thanks Oscar, sorry to have been so long in replying - hospital got their tenacious little claws into me again . Nah, seriously - at least one of the appts was welcome, I got a cancellation for bi-lateral facet joint injections and a transforaminal epidural :T (that's me clapping just because I can actually spell it :rotfl:) hence I'm feeling better and have been managing on the crutches (got to get a puncture fixed too LOL) - although for how long? Who knows .

I've just looked back over my calendar and every other day for the past five weeks, I've had an appointment for one thing or another. Yesterday was bad - I went to the dentist to have preparatory work for a crown on a back molar, but the temporary filling had fallen out and when x-rayed it showed a fracture line through the tooth so it had to come out. Suffice to say, the tooth didn't like the idea and clung on for grim death :eek:. Today I'm shattered as it's kicked off both the fibro and the CFS - not to mention my cervical discs are sore, from trying to keep my neck stiff whilst he tugged and pulled to get the thing out. Add to this TMJ, transgeminal neuralgia and bruxism and I reckon the solution might just be a guillotine :rotfl:.

Keep on wheeling and hobbling friends. I used to have a great sticker that read: "My other car's a broom", but it's fallen off so now I want the one that reads: "Heaven won't have me and Hell's afraid I'll take over".

Oscar_The_Grouch

Unity, glad to see you are back from your second home. From the sound of it, the NHS would do well to provide you with an office so that all the specialists, quacks with needles, nurses, physios and other NHS weirdos can come to you!!

My NHS wheelchair arrived the other week and it's absolutely uselss!! It's only 800 yards to the GP, but by the time I get there in the wheelchair, my back is spasming like there's no tomorrow, I can't feel my legs and my head feels like it's too heavy for my neck to hold up!! So far I've left 3 messages for the wheelchair service and they've left only 1 for me. Hopefully they'll arrange a replacement chair before Christmas!!!

It's times like this that I'm glad I've got my scooter. It's not practical for everything and 6mph is nowhere near as fast as I used to go in the car, but until I get my legs working and my GP gives me the ok to drive, I've little choice...

daska

sunnyone wrote: »

You wouldnt get a NHS powerchair based on the above, the funds are limited and occasional use isnt funded but you are not expected to use it all the time either, I use a manual upstairs because I use a stairlift and another manual from garage into the house if theres no one there to get my powerchair out of the car for me (yes mine fits in the car, thats one of the reason I chose this one above the others)

You could get a manual wheelchair from wheelchair services, your GP can refer you or any consultant can do it, I didnt want a powerchair and turned them down many times until I couldnt propel myself anymore.

In my part of the country (and in the county I previously lived in) the rule is that you can't have a powerchair unless you have to use a manual chair indoors. HTH

Of course that's no use to those of us who can get about indoors but who cannot self-propel as far as the garden gate. And it's even less use for those of us who have young children as we then need a carer to push us and a carer to push the buggy.

Ironically, whilst legally a mobility scooter is a one person vehicle, a powerchair isn't and can be adapted to carry a child seat thereby given a disabled parent complete independence BUT how on earth do you start affording a powerchair on DLA when they only give you a one year award?!?!

The cost of taxis plus carers to push my child for one year, paid for out of my SS budget would have paid for a powerchair BUT SS money can't be used for that kind of equipment so in the long term there's less to show for it. The whole system is completely insane!