WHEELCHAIR SUPPLIES

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31123, 28 July 1966, Page 20

WHEELCHAIR SUPPLIES

Board Wants Changes

Paraplegics and other disabled persons should get their first wheelchairs free of charge, and a supply should be readily available, preferably from a hospital “pool,” the North Canterbury Hospital Board decided yesterday. Wheelchairs for these patients became a permanent part of their equipment, the board’s institutions committee said in a report. On its recommendation the board decided to seek permission to import suitable chairs, as they were considered more satisfactory than locally made chairs which were subject to long delivery delays. The board will urge the Health Department to amend the appropriate regulations. “These people are entitled to the best chairs made in the world,” said Mr J. B. Hay, chairman of the committee. He said wheelchairs took the place of legs for those patients.

“I feel very strongly about this,” said Mr Hay. “The shops are full of things that come in on import licences that are far less necessary than chairs of this sort.” Mr L. A. Bennett said a wheelchair became part of the life of a spinal injury patient. It was important to have a pool of really first-class chairs. "There is no difference between an amputee being provided with a leg calliper and a paraplegic having a wheelchair,” said Dr. L. McH. Berry, the board’s medical superintendent-in-chief. “In Britain they go even further and provide motorised transport.” Dr. Berry said many persons in wheelchairs could be got back to useful work, and this was important. They were getting wheelchairs at the moment, but with difficulty. They had to either buy them, or borrow them from the board, or go through a long rigmarole to get them from the Social Security Department.

Under the board’s proposal, the patient would get his wheelchair as of right.