§ Mr. Paul MarsdenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what maintenance checks are made on refurbished NHS wheelchairs before they are despatched to disabled people; and if he will make a statement. [87571]
§ Mr. HuttonNational Health Service Supplies arranges contracts on behalf of NHS trusts for the repair, modification and maintenance of wheelchairs.
Rehabilitation engineers are employed by NHS trusts and among their duties carry out checks on a representative batch of the work completed by the repairers. If the batch inspected fails to meet the standard required, the whole consignment is rejected and has to be reprocessed by the repairer.