North East Essex Wheelchair Service

General information

Who are we?

We are a small team consisting of three Occupational Therapists, one Technical Instructor, one Technical Engineer, and three Administrative staff.

We contract the services of DGT to carry out maintenance, repairs, collections and deliveries of equipment. We are part of Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust (CHUFT).

What do we do?

We assess for and provide wheelchairs, accessories and special seating to people who have a long term disability (expected to last six months or longer), requiring daily wheeled mobility.

Where do we cover?

We have approximately two and a half thousand wheelchair users of all ages, living in the Colchester and Tendring boroughs.

We are funded by North East Essex NHS Clinical Commissioning Group.

Access to Service

We accept new referrals from GPs, trained therapy staff, District nurses and Community Matrons through our secure e-mail address above. The form must be completed in full, in conjunction with the applicant, next of kin or carer.

Clients already known to us, or their relatives, carers or health professionals, can contact us directly with new enquiries or requests without needing a new referral. We will ask if the client has given consent to do this where necessary.

For any maintenance or repair issues with NHS wheelchairs please call DGT directly on 01245 468834.

Eligibility criteria for equipment provision is set within a broad national framework and agreed between NEEWCS and the Clinical Commissioning Group. This takes into account local individual needs and resources.

Assessment and waiting times

We aim to make contact and discuss new referrals or enquiries into our service within two working days of receipt.

Face-to-face assessments are made from a waiting list which can take up to 18 weeks from initial contact but varies throughout the year, according to demand.

Where clients are not deemed eligible for equipment we will work closely with them to provide the best advice on equipment and other local resources available to them.