Government fails to deliver on cash promise

By Sunil Peck

Disabled children are being let down by the NHS, a report has claimed.

In February, the Department of Health announced an investment worth £340 million over 3 years for short breaks, wheelchairs and palliative care for disabled children.

But the money has not been ringfenced and the report, ‘Disabled Children and Health’, published by the campaigning group Every Disabled Child Matters (EDCM), found that Primary Care Trusts were unable to identify where the money was being spent and that there was confusion about what services they were expected to offer.

One parent who featured in the report said that there was a lack of joined up working between health and social care services. They said: "We repeatedly see local agencies passing the buck when it comes to agreeing care for my son. Social services tell us they can’t provide night care for him because it is medical care, while health tell us they can’t provide it because it is a family support service."

The report also found that children can wait so long for a wheelchair that it is too small for them by the time it arrives.

Disabled children are denied access to basic healthcare because dentists and GPs often lack the training to deal with disabled children.

The report cites the case of a child with Down's syndrome who attended a routine hearing test. But the audiologist was unaware that the condition meant that the structure of the child's ear canal differed. He pushed his osteoscope too far into her ear causing a perforation of her ear drum.

In its recommendations, EDCM urges the Department of Health to get tough with Primary Care Trusts who do not spend enough money on services for disabled children.

It also said that every Primary Care Trust should have a named lead at a strategic level responsible for services for disabled children by December 2009 and that every Primary Care Trust should publish information on the additional funding it has allocated locally between 2008 and 2011 to disabled children’s services, separately identifying short breaks, equipment, wheelchairs and palliative care for disabled children.