9 August 2016

If you have a wheelchair owned by the Whanganui District Health Board (WDHB) which was not officially loaned to you, can you please return it to Whanganui Hospital - no questions asked.
 
Whanganui DHB clinical therapies manager Runesu Masaisai says Friends of the Hospital volunteers are spending many hours searching the hospital for wheelchairs which are currently in very short supply.
 
Mr Masaisai says not being able to find a wheelchair to transport a patient around the hospital is adding stress to already difficult situations for patients who find it challenging to get to their outpatient appointment or up to a ward without assistance.
 
“Unfortunately, we think a few hospital visitors might be wheeling their family members back to their car and taking the wheel chair home with them, without having our consent to do so,” Mr Masaisai says.
 
“The WDHB is prepared to overlook such incidents in the hope that people will be encouraged to return our wheelchairs. They can do this by leaving them in the hospital’s Main Entrance.
 
“We are not talking about the wheelchairs loaned to patients by Whanganui Hospital’s Loans Equipment Department when patients needing one are discharged from hospital. We are talking about the wheelchairs that are being taken without consent.
 
“If a person genuinely feels they require a wheelchair to improve their mobility and independence, we ask that they discuss this need with their GP who can arrange for one to be loaned to them.”