Look at the state of this:
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
The source article states:
NHS hospitals in London are charging patients by the hour for wheelchairs used to get around their buildings.
Rather than have a stock of hospital owned-and-operated wheelchairs King’s College Hospital in Lambeth has installed a Boris Bike-style hiring service run by Wheelshare, a private healthcare business. Unless patients have come in an ambulance, people arriving at the hospital and unable to walk to A&E are pointed towards a hiring dock full of wheelchairs unlocked by a credit card machine.
Although the first four hours are free, after that each wheelchair costs patients £2/hour, with the cost being automatically charged to the user’s credit card. King’s has some of the worst waiting times in country, with some patients waiting up to 12 hours to be seen in A&E.
As one patient’s carer put it: “You can’t call an ambulance because of the waiting times. If you get to the hospital in a car you need to pay for transport while you wait in A&E. There’s literally a wheelchair shortage in a hospital”
The service – if that’s what you can call it – has already extended to Hillingdon Hospital in Uxbridge and may go on to other hospitals in London as part of an ambitious expansion plan by Wheelshare.
What a swindle.
Apparently the fees are there to ensure the wheelchairs are returned by patients, and those who experience longer waits for treatment are able to have the costs refunded by contacting Wheelshare directly.
But this is not advertised at the hospital or in text messages sent by Wheelshare to patients who have been charged, according to London Centric.
But when settling the bill for a wheelchair on the docking station, patients are prompted to pay an extra donation to the NHS hospital.
So that’s false advertising, isn’t it? What good is a refund service if nobody knows about it?
The whole affair seems extremely suspicious. Isn’t it just another scheme to victimise the sick and disabled?
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Hospital imposes new tax on wheelchair users
Look at the state of this:
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
The source article states:
The service – if that’s what you can call it – has already extended to Hillingdon Hospital in Uxbridge and may go on to other hospitals in London as part of an ambitious expansion plan by Wheelshare.
What a swindle.
Apparently the fees are there to ensure the wheelchairs are returned by patients, and those who experience longer waits for treatment are able to have the costs refunded by contacting Wheelshare directly.
But this is not advertised at the hospital or in text messages sent by Wheelshare to patients who have been charged, according to London Centric.
But when settling the bill for a wheelchair on the docking station, patients are prompted to pay an extra donation to the NHS hospital.
So that’s false advertising, isn’t it? What good is a refund service if nobody knows about it?
The whole affair seems extremely suspicious. Isn’t it just another scheme to victimise the sick and disabled?
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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