Impact of our wheelchair loan Economic resource savings When her mother left and her As one occupational therapist notes: £963 husband returned to full-time work, “it’s essential for day-to-day life Additional personal finance Sameena borrowed a self-propelled (during rehabilitation), getting out of savings wheelchair from the Red Cross. This the house, even just getting to the enabled her to move around her bathroom…potentially the wheelchair home and to look after her daughter is the key part of your rehabilitation £341 with the continued support of two process and it’s crucial that you need short visits a day from her carers. She that equipment.” would otherwise have needed a more Sameena and her whole family have Avoiding at least one ambulance substantial level of support. benefitted from a very real sense of call out for a scheduled hospital “At least I can move from one side of being able to maintain mobility and appointment = the room to the other and if she [baby] quality of life through the Red Cross £233 resource savings for has dropped a toy I can pick it up…. It short-term wheelchair loan. She NHS ambulance service per has given me more independence in would have missed out on some incidence the house,” she said. key parts of her children’s lives, had (based on £233 per incidence of ambulance she not been able to go and show call out: see, treat and convey cost per Without the Red Cross wheelchair, incident; PSSRU, 2014) Sameena and her daughter would her support at her 11-year old son’s have needed almost constant school ‘graduation’ ceremony. This, support from care services, as there in her words, “would have been Avoiding 2 x home calls from would have been concerns for her very devastating. It was a very nice the GP for her sick daughter = and her baby’s wellbeing in this moment and it would have been quite Approximately £110 situation. Sameena could not have upsetting if I hadn’t been there.” got herself off her bed, fully attended Sameena summed up the difference resource savings for local GP or to her baby daughter, moved to the that the chair has made for her as clinic (based on GP cost per hour = £146, and bathroom or helped with meals. follows: “It has made a big difference assuming 11.4 minute average visit time plus She would have required a further to my overall view of that period (her 12 minute average travel time = GP cost £55 increase in her care package and/or recovery) and the emotional feelings. per visit or a health visitor = £51 per visit; PSSRU, 2014) her husband would have had to take I knew that once I had it, if I had to go even more time off work, which would somewhere, I wouldn’t have to rely Faster recovery by one week, have put his employment at risk. on others all the time…I had some plus avoiding three weeks of Because Sameena was able to push independence back. I do try and get home care at a “substantial” herself short distances with the Red out regularly even if I am not feeling level of support = Cross wheelchair, her husband was 100 per cent – for me to not get out able to accompany her to follow-up for weeks would be quite dreadful Total £620 resource hospital appointments and doctors’ really.” savings for social care services appointments for the children, while (based on the difference between £280 per pushing the baby in her buggy. week home care cost “substantial” level, and Sameena feels that the chair helped £125 per week “moderate” level; PSSRU, 2014) her to recover more quickly than she would have done otherwise. Six Additional three weeks half- weeks after the accident, she no time off work for her husband = longer needed the carers, but she thinks she would have needed their £341 immediate loss of support for at least an additional family income week if she had to manage without (at minimum wage £6.50 per hour and the Red Cross chair. assuming 35-hour week. However the real cost could have been higher if Sameena’s husband had lost his job, which was a likely outcome) 15