28 June 2002
A commission report published this week found that services were as bad now as when examined two years ago. It said it could find no sign of the £210m additional funding promised by the government for equipment for people with disabilities. 'Little has reached frontline equipment services,' the report says.
Extra money given to NHS trusts and local authorities had instead been swallowed up by staff pay rises or debt repayments.
'It is very disappointing, two years on, that such little progress has been made in improving mobility services and commissioning,' said Sir Andrew Foster, the commission's controller. 'This raises serious questions about whether we need to develop more radical approaches to the way these services are provided.'
The report's author, Nick Mapstone, said the problem was a lack of transparency in the system. 'We have only really got ministers' words for it that there was extra money and not double-counting,' he said.
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