by Katie Lamborn

Shocking new figures have revealed disabled
people in parts of Kent are being forced to wait up to
two years for a wheelchair.

Statistics released by the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign show Eastern and Coastal Kent are the worst when it comes to delivering the vital service - with waits sometimes totalling nine months.

That compares to Medway, where
disabled people can expect to wait just 10 weeks for a
wheelchair.

Mark Bishop, from Herne
Bay, waited two years for the wheelchair he needs.

The 48-year-old, who suffers
from a form of the muscle-wasting condition called Becker
muscular dystrophy, said: "The postcode lottery just isn't
fair.

"I'm still waiting for the right
electric wheelchair - not having it restricts everything I do.

"It took two years for wheelchair
services to adapt a wheelchair they had to what I wanted and even
now it's not finished. Someone with a Meccano kit could have done a
better job.

"I had to leave it in the end and
stick with the old one which is very very uncomfortable - it's so
hard to leave the house in it."

Mark, of Coventry
Gardens, added: "I just want a new wheelchair so I can get on
with living."

The campaign is taking the
figures to parliament on Wednesday for the launch
of its wheelchair report.

Head of policy and campaigns Nic
Bungay said: "We were shocked to learn of the massive gaps in
wheelchair services faced by people across the country.

"It's particularly frustrating for
a lot of patients that if they lived somewhere else, sometimes even
just in the next town, their access to wheelchairs could be much
better."

Medway PCT say they are "delighted"
that people who need a wheelchair in their area are getting one
more quickly.

"We have invested more money in the
service, cleared the waiting lists and involved patients in a
project to change the way the wheelchair service was being
delivered to make it more efficient and streamlined."

A spokesman for Eastern and Coastal Kent PCT said the average waiting time in the area was just 12 weeks, with more complex cases taking up to nine months.