Disabled children in Oxfordshire are being forced to wait more than four months for a wheelchair from the NHS, figures reveal.
Clinical Commissioning Groups in England are required to deliver wheelchairs to children within 18 weeks of referral in at least 92 per cent of cases – a target that has been lowered from a previous threshold of 100 per cent.
But NHS figures show that 18 children waited longer than the 18-week window in the Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) area between April and June.
In total, 71 had a wheelchair or other equipment prescribed and delivered to them in that time, meaning the CCG had a success rate of just 75 per cent, around 10 per cent lower than the national average.
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Children with a greater need also faced longer waits, with 15 young people assessed as having high needs after being referred to wheelchair services, meaning they were fully dependent on a chair for all their mobility needs.
But seven per cent of these children had to wait longer than eight weeks to be assessed, compared to zero per cent for children with a low or medium need.
A spokeswoman for NHS England said: “While around 85 per cent of children and adults are getting a wheelchair within the 18 week target, some people may have complex conditions and may wait longer for specialist equipment.”
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