Chair-Saga

 

See here for essential background: https://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2025/11/one-of-our-wheelchairs-is-missing.html.
As you can see, three days later and the wheelchair was still there. It had been moved from the middle of the sports pitches by the players and was parked by the shipping container they use to store their equipment. Despite the fact I had called OxRad hospital porters and told them, nobody had been round to pick it up. I didn't fancy its chances much if it were left lying in the open for a lot longer. These vehicles have no anti-corrosion protection, not being designed for outdoor work. A few weeks in the elements and it would start to rust and the wheels would seize up. After that there's not a lot you can do. Sure, you can take it to estates and they might be able to clean it up and fix it, but they might not consider that worthwhile. By then it might be easier and cheaper just to scrap it buy a new one; and the new chair would not be nearly as good because modern designs are rubbish compared to this one. By saving the chair I'd be saving them that expense; not to mention my brother HP's having to put up with substandard tools. A hospital wheelchair like that costs many hundreds of pounds, about as much as a high performance bicycle. Therefore I decided to take matters into my own hands. I returned the vehicle to the hospital myself. This was not easy. As I said, they're built for smooth hospital floors with no suspension or pneumatic tyres and so it bumped and vibrated badly as I pushed it along the street. I found it hard to manoeuvre over curbs and other obstructions. One of my clients offered to help me by putting it in the back of her car and driving with me to the hospital. I thanked her for the offer, but I knew it wouldn't fit. This model is designed exclusively for inpatient use and never for disabled people in the community. It was far too big and heavy to put into a car, and it had no way of folding or disassembling. I also abandoned my previous plan to take it on the bus. I wasn't sure the driver would let me and I'd have had a long wait at the stop on a Sunday; so I walked with it... I portered. It felt very nostalgic, especially when I reached the hospital itself and was wheeling it along the corridors. I had a text from my daughter asking: "Dad, why are you walking along Hollow Way pushing a wheelchair?" She had seen me pass from the window of her gym. I managed to take a short cut through an alleyway and gambled that the bike bars at the entrance to the Churchill Hospital would be wide enough to let me through with it. I delivered the wheelchair to the porters' lodge only to be told I was at the wrong hospital! This chair came from the JRH. The Churchill porters are under G4S and not Mitie; which is worse? These contractors tend to be all the same. I told my Extremely Proud and Dignified Brother Porters that I wasn't going to wheel it any further and asked them to arrange for ambulance transport to move it, which shouldn't be difficult. I spent a few minutes talking to my bother porters. I didn't recognize any of them; but I did get the selfie you see below with MEP&DBP Izzu. After that I left the vehicle by the main entrance where they're supposed to be stored. Mission accomplished!