If you’re ill in London, and have problems walking, beware, NHS hospitals in London are charging patients by the hour for wheelchairs as part of a new ‘service’ offered by Wheelshare, a private healthcare business. In other words, another bite being taken out of the NHS by creeping privatisation targeting people in need of special care, support, or protection because of age or disability.
King’s College Hospital in Lambeth has installed a pay-to-use system for the less fortunate patients Unless arriving in an ambulance, people arriving at the hospitals A&E department and unable to walk, are pointed towards a dock full of wheelchairs unlocked by a credit card machine, with charges docked to the user’s credit card after the first four hours, which are free. After that each wheelchair costs patients £2 an hour, and with an average waiting time of up to 12 hours, being incapacitated can be an increasingly expensive experience with those with mobility issues often being some of the sickest patients who often have to wait hours to be seen.
This has replaced the formerly available free hospital owned-and-operated wheelchair system, and the continued pillage of the once world envied National Health Service continues apace, no matter which Government is in power, in the face of rampant capitalism. Wake up before it’s too late and get in touch with your MP’s and Councillors, otherwise like many other stealth taxes, it will be there, and you will be complaining much too late.
