Stockport’s NHS wheelchair centre is providing an innovative new way to help users to drive their chairs smoothly and safely, and to ensure they get the chairs they need sooner.

The wheelchair centre now provides a specialist ‘driving course’ in its powered wheelchair assessment area for users; the only one of it’s kind from the NHS in the north west, and one of the first in the country.

The assessment area allows users to test their chair out with challenges which they would face in everyday life, including different sizes of doors, rooms and corridors, and obstacles such as tables and chairs. It includes specially built simulated rooms which allow assessment within the main centre.

The Stockport wheelchair centre is an NHS service which provides chairs for 6000 wheelchair users in the region, from basic manual chairs to the most advanced electronic models assisting those users with greater needs. With the clinical assessment area, powered assessment area and wheelchair stock warehouse all being under one roof, the newly enhanced centre means that suitable chairs can be provided much sooner.

One user who has benefitted is Bryn Brealey, 17 from Hazel Grove. Bryn has cerebral palsy and needs assistance with both movement and communication. He has recently been given access to the latest hi-tech wheelchair which responds directly to head sensors on the chair.  This allows him to both move and communicate more easily. 

The new chair allows Bryn much more independence but after years of using a more basic model it will also take some getting used to. Using the new course he is learning to navigate around obstacles more quickly all the time.

Wheelchair centre manager George Bryson said  “Before we had the new assessment area the patient could not try the chair properly to ensure they were able to operate a powered chair safely. Now we have the area, it speeds up the assessment, prescription and provision process, ensuring patients get their equipment in a more efficient way.

The centre hasn’t been open long but its already working really well, and helping us to help Bryn and others like him with more independent living.”