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 | You and Yours - Transcript 91Èȱ¬ Radio 4 |
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| TX: 30.03.04 – AGREEMENT REACHED TO STOP WOMAN HAVING TO SLEEP IN HER WHEELCHAIR PRESENTER: LIZ BARCLAY |
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| THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 91Èȱ¬ CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. BARCLAY Lorraine Wolstenholme has spent the past 22 months, day and night, living, eating and sleeping in her wheelchair. When we first spoke to her just over a year ago, on You and Yours, Lorraine, who's from Milton Keynes and has multiple sclerosis, told us that she was in this situation because of a dispute with her social services department over how her carers should lift her in and out of bed. The situation was having a serious impact on her life. WOLSTENHOLME It makes my symptoms very much worse. I just don't know how I'm going to carry on really. They're telling me it takes, what, two, three nurses to move me but they expect my daughter to do it single-handedly and she's only a very small person, my daughter, she only weighs about 7 stone. And she's very shortly going to injure herself. BARCLAY And now, over a year later, Lorraine and her daughter are still coping as best they can but there's good news. Lorraine's solicitor, Richard Stein, has been telling me that the situation is about to be resolved. STEIN A whole range of issues have been agreed with the social services and the health trust. Ranging from the kinds of equipment that's required, from a new motor in the hoist, a new sling to lift Lorraine with the hoist in and out of her wheelchair and her bed, a new wheelchair which will allow her to sit in her wheelchair properly, adaptations to her bed. All of those things will be happening over the next few weeks and in addition the carers who have been employed to move Lorraine will be learning exactly how that technique should work, in conjunction with Lorraine and a specialist manual handling expert. And it's hoped that over the next four to eight weeks Lorraine will get to the point where every evening she's hoisted into bed and every morning she's helped back out of bed into her wheelchair. BARCLAY Solicitor Richard Stein. Barbara Kennedy is Chief Executive of Milton Keynes Primary Healthcare Trust. Barbara, this is very good news for Lorraine but why has it taken 22 months to come up with this care package? KENNEDY Yes I'm absolutely delighted that we've got an agreement with Mrs Wolstenholme. I mean it has been an extremely difficult and unusual case and it has been difficult to resolve and I regret the time it's taken to resolve. As you will be aware Mrs Wolstenholme sadly suffers from very severe spasms and these can last for two to three hours. We were very concerned that lifting her could prove very dangerous to her and we have brought in independent experts to help us to find a way of supporting her in the future, which will be effective and that is what we've managed to achieve. BARCLAY How much will it actually cost the trust then to provide this service? KENNEDY Well because she's having a unique care package and because the case is unusual it will be expensive, I haven't got the figures in front of me but it will not be a cheap option. BARCLAY You've said that this is an unusual case are there other people in the trust's area in a similar situation? KENNEDY We haven't had any cases quite like Mrs Wolstenholme's and I think that's why it's been more difficult to resolve and that's why we've called in independent national experts to help us with it. BARCLAY But having resolved this particular case then are you now confident that in future you could ensure any future cases of this sort could be resolved much more quickly? KENNEDY We hope that the learning from working with Mrs Wolstenholme will pay dividends in the future in that we will be better informed about the latest national techniques. But of course every individual case has to be considered based on the needs of that person. BARCLAY And can we be sure then that within that four to eight weeks that Lorraine's solicitor mentioned then Lorraine will actually be in a situation where she will be getting into bed at night and up every morning? KENNEDY It's certainly intended to be the case. There is a very careful programme that's been agreed with Mrs Wolstenholme where that will happen. BARCLAY Barbara Kennedy from Milton Keynes Primary Healthcare Trust, thank you. Back to the You and Yours homepage The 91Èȱ¬ is not responsible for external websites |
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