Hi,
Pretty please, Can anybody advise me on how or where where I can obtain copies of Statutory Instraments ... presumably direct from HMSO ... but where is their shop?
I think what I'm looking for is SI. No.1189 DISABLED FACILITIES GRANTS.
All I have been able to find refers to ACCESS TO A GARDEN AREA, INCLUDING HOUSE BOATS, under that SI number, but I'm guessing that ONLY refers to "Access to Garden Areas". I'm looking for the legal situation for ALL disabilities, and situations.
I understand that the Ombudsman is very "hawkish" when comes to "bathroom facilities". He also has specific interest in cooking facilities.
My LA seem the think that providing facilities is optional ... We asked for help in getting Barbara out through the front door. They provided an aluminium chequer plate ramp, with a 1:5 slope. Barbara's power-chair grounded it's rear anti-tip wheels , lifting the driving wheels, so she stopped. Version two was longer, at 2 metres, but gave a 1:8 incline, which her power chair could manage, but my knees were uncomfortable at that incline. We asked out builder to lower the complete front door frame, so the opening door barely skimmed over the hall carpet, then raise the brick paved drive to match. Visitors do not notice that there IS a slope. Actually it's now 1 in 12, which I believe Building Regs decree is the maximum permitted.
While he was in the mood, I asked him to pave (brick) the entire front garden, giving me lots of lovely parking. £8,000 from our own pockets, plus another £1,000 to widen the lounge door, so that Barbara did not have to zig-zag her powerchair from the lounge, across the hall into the bathroom. We also had the normal WC bowl replaced with a taller version.. All academic now, as she can't get out of bed.
The hospital would not discharge her until she could be craned into bed, so, they provided a "hospital quality" engine lifting crane, before realising that our newish Adjustamatic double bed was actually a double divan, with no space underneath for the crane's front wheels (only 3 or 4" diameter). So they split the 5ft wide bed into two 30" wide divans, and dumped Barbara's half in the study, leaving me with the other 30". Thirty inches is considered a child's bed, not really suitable for my 100kg mass. So we bought me a hospital "style" bed, 900mm wide, not 100mm like Barbara's, and without the vertical adjustment of Barbara's proper hospital bed. Circa £800. I wish we had spent the extra £100, and got a proper hospital bed.
The bed arrived, and Barbara arrived home the following day. Her carer's craned out of her wheelchair then tried to push crane over the bed. Wrong! The crane's little wheels refused to move over the deep pile carpet, presumably laid by the original owner, when the bungalow was new, forty years ago. So the ambulance crew started to shake the crane, which terrified Barbara. I can't remember how they got her into bed, but they did .... and there she has stayed for several months, without a break. I moved the crane into the lounge, and that's where it has stayed.
I asked Barbara to order me a new Stanley knife from Amazon ... and have removed every scrap of carpet. Both beds, and the crane, now roll easily over what our builder calls "parquet", but I doubt that anyone will be able to persuade Barbara to be hoisted then pushed, ever again.
We both wonder if she is being punished for phoning the Fire Brigade, last time she fell, instead of waiting the forecast three hours, for an ambulance, while lying on the bathroom floor. The Fire Crew Chief got quite "snotty", demanded Barbara be taken to hospital, and HE phoned for an ambulance ... which arrived within minutes. She spent three weeks in bed, no treatment that she was aware of, before being discharged.
I occasionally ponder on asking our solicitor in Swansea, who can (at times) act unconventionally, and I want him on MY side, if the Ombudsman would be interested.
Any thoughts?
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