Oxfordshire wheelchair service referrals

Eligibility criteria summary

Basic eligibility criteria

• The individual should, as a result of a permanent disability or medical condition, have a mobility issue that persists for more than six months or require palliative care.
• A wheelchair should be required for regular use (at least three days per week).
• The initial referral should ideally be from a healthcare professional or doctor: if this is not possible, patients may self-refer, but this can increase the waiting time due to the additional triaging needed.

Powered wheelchairs

• The client is unable to functionally or safely walk or self-propel within the home environment.
• There must be no medical, visual or cognitive factors that would render the individual unsafe to control the powered wheelchair. If the individual has epilepsy or a similar condition they should usually have suffered no loss of consciousness or seizures in waking hours for at least one year.
• The home environment must be suitable for use of a powered wheelchair.
• Powered wheelchairs may be issued for indoor use only where it would not be safe for the individual to use it outdoors.
• Powered wheelchairs cannot be supplied for outdoor use only.
• The powered wheelchair would be the primary source of mobility for the client.
• The individual must be able to control the wheelchair themselves (i.e. not an attendant controlled chair).

Children

• Buggies and wheelchairs are provided for children over the age of 30 months for indoor and outdoor use.
• Special buggies will be provided under the age of 30 months if postural support is required.
• Double or dual inline buggies will only be supplied where there are two disabled children within the family.
• Rain covers, sunshades etc. will not normally be provided.

Exclusion criteria

• We cannot provide:
• standard attendant propelled wheelchair and associated equipment for nursing home residents.
• wheelchairs to individuals who are mobile but choose not to walk or, except in extreme cases, whose behaviour affects their ability to mobilise safely
• wheelchairs solely for work, sport, education or nursing
• outdoor powered wheelchairs and scooters
• add-on battery power packs or electric units ('powerpack').

Making a referral

The service covers all ages, all diagnoses and most wheelchairs (including self-propelled and electric wheelchairs and adapted wheelchairs).

The service works with the Specialist Disability Service and the Rehabilitation Engineering Department in relation to highly specialist and adapted wheelchairs.

Please use the form provided below. This is essential because the great majority of wheelchairs are provided without further clinical assessment and accurate information is needed.

Oxfordshire Wheelchair Service Referral Form (Word, 116 KB)

Oxfordshire Wheelchair Service Self-Referral Form (Word, 92 KB)

If the patient has complex needs requiring clinical assessment please supply a covering letter identifying:

• any clinical problems that require a more specialist wheelchair
• the underlying medical diagnosis.

If there is doubt about the diagnosis, please refer the patient for a rehabilitation medical outpatient assessment).

Please send referrals to:

OWS Administration
Oxford Centre for Enablement
Windmill Road
Oxford OX3 7HE

Email: owsadministration@ouh.nhs.uk

If a referral does not require further assessment, we will contact the patient directly and supply equipment.

In all other cases, we will contact the referrer to acknowledge receipt of the referral, and inform them of the next step.

Referrals should not be made for wheelchair maintenance (for example if some part of the wheelchair has stopped working).