More Test-driving

[davidgillon]

Today's event, first medical appointment in the chair. Which went okay-ish, though I can't help thinking that if you have to put a sign on the front of your building saying 'Physio patients, not this one, you want the one at the other side of the business park' then you probably want better directions in your letters.

Anyway, I found the right building in the end. complete with wheelchair access through the bowels of the underground car park. Fortunately relatively well thought out - 'Oh shit, outward opening door at the top of a ramp' turned out to have automatic opening (though of course you lose all your momentum waiting for it to open).  OTOH the lift was only just big enough for my chair, I can see larger powerchairs having issues.

The physio wasn't thrown that I was using a chair, which was just the reaction I wanted. I did try trolling the situation wrt wheelchair assessments and the weight etc of the chair during the explanation of what was going on in the hope that he would take the bait and say 'that chair's clearly inappropriate'; but unfortunately what he actually said was 'I don't know a lot about wheelchairs' and 'we leave that to Wheelchair Services' :(

Treatment-wise he agrees that I have impingement syndrome. Unfortunately he says I've also got a frozen shoulder as a result, and he can't treat the impingement syndrome until he's treated the frozen shoulder. *headdesk* So I've got a bunch of exercises for working on range of motion to be getting on with and another appointment next Friday.

There did seem to be a disturbing undertone of 'I'm only here to treat one thing, so if I treat the frozen shoulder I won't have to treat the impingement syndrome'. That might be a somewhat harsh interpretation, but I'm really not sure it's wrong. If it turns out to be the case, then I think it's fair to say someone is going to be complained at!

I went shopping at Asda* post-physio (and really overdid amount of food you can squeeze into one basket sitting on your knee). Treatment at the checkouts was, ahem, interesting.

I got to the tills to find the wide aisle was closed (which makes two-for-two for trips to Asda in the chair), even though about a dozen other aisles were open. Picked another aisle and the lady running the till calls up from the customer she's serving that 'she's open'.
I'm sorry, what? Finally figured out that she meant someone had just opened up the next aisle (not the wide one), which I couldn't see from that height.

So I swap aisles, only to find the chair physically won't fit through that aisle (it did fit through one last time, but this one was clearly subtly narrower). At which point the till-ladies decide among themselves that they're summoning a supervisor to sort it out and I should go down to the wide aisle. Why the aisle-opening one couldn't simply open the wide aisle herself I don't know. Eventually the supervisor appears, who looks about 20. But he's male, so he's a supervisor.

Up until that point I'd been reasonably happy that people were trying to help even if they weren't being particularly competent at it. And that's when he really put his foot in his mouth. "Sorry for the delay," he says, "we haven't got the personnel to man this one.'

'But you've got the staff to man a dozen other aisles?'

'Er'.

Let's just say I firmly impressed on him the need for manning the access aisle first, last and always! Maybe he'll think before making stupid comments again!

* my nearest superstore, Wallmart owned, for American readers

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Argh argh argh. So much crap!

I was just browsing the ADA regs (cause I needed an afternoon nap) and encountered the requirement that "accessible aisles/counters/tills must be staffed during all open hours." Because, um, if you only have one checker on duty ... put them there!

Are there physiatrists on the NHS? (aka rehabilitation medicine doctors). In the US, that's who would treat the intersection of frozen / impingment / new chair user, since they specialize in the body as a system.

[davidgillon]

Because, um, if you only have one checker on duty ... put them there!

Absolutely, you would think it was so obvious, but apparently not. The UK system is less prescriptive, you're simply required to make reasonable adjustments to provide access, which has the good point in that any new access need or form of service is automatically covered, but the bad point that everything is arguable over and it may take a court case to decide what's reasonable (which we're expected to bring).

I've never come across a physiatrist in the UK, and I've spent time trying to get someone to look at my body as a system - I had the local Rheumatology department admit they couldn't even look at my spine as a system (I have both cervical and lumbar/pelvic issues). I think the UK system tends to treat rehab as mostly 'beneath' doctors, so it's left to physio, occupational health and wheelchair services, and none of them integrate particularly well with the others.

Another friend of mine is having similar issues trying to source a chair that deals with her needs. She has a very limited ability to sit upright, so needs a chair she can be mostly flat in. She's got a powerchair that mostly meets her needs, but is trying to find a manual that has similar capabilities so friends can put it in their car to take her out. Everyone immediately said tilt-in-space, but I think she's looking for a bit more specialised seating than most tilt-in-space manuals offer. Any ideas?

[jesse_the_k]

Major sympathy for your massively multiple health care non-consultants.

Sorry also for the late reply re: horizontal chairs.

In addition to "tilt-in-space," some manual and power chairs made in US have reclining seating, which ends up truly flat. The drawback is the shearing force against your skin as the sections move from horizontal to vertical. Oh, and the fact that you need elevating legrests* to hold up your legs/feet (if you have 'em) and ELRs are always always always breaking.

Karman makes three of them

SpinLife has been providing DME service for a decade: They've got a range. Note that the lightest one is 46 pounds.

[davidgillon]

Thanks for the flat chair links, I'll pass them on to my friend.

[nanila]

Even if they weren't legally required to maintain equal access for all, which they are, surely they would want to be able to serve as many customers as possible because profits, y/y? ARGH!

[davidgillon]

Unfortunately the legal requirement isn't 'equal access', it's that they make 'reasonable adjustments' to provide some kind of access, which they can argue they're doing and they can get away with it because enforcing the law needs some disabled person to decide they have the energy to take on Asda, and even then a judge may rule in Asda's favour (courts themselves are notoriously inaccessible). The extent some of the big companies have gone to to avoid providing access defies logic. There was a case of a bank who were sued and lost, and they absolutely had no chance of winning - they were trying to claim doing personal financial business with the customer on the busy town centre footpath outside was reasonable, yet they appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court (and lost) at a cost that would have probably converted half their brances nationwide.

And the 'because profits' argument is probably 'do nothing, they'll put up with it'. Sigh.