DISABLED people in Wyre Forest are experiencing difficulties getting hold of the wheelchairs they need on the NHS.

That was one of the findings of a survey conducted by the health watchdog, Wyre Forest Patient and Public Involvement Forum, which has pledged to investigate the matter in its work programme for 2005-2006.

Other problems highlighted in response to the questionnaire handed out during a special event on the Severn Valley Railway in March included delays in discharges from hospital and pharmacists not stocking drugs that doctors prescribed.

It was the issue of disabled people having trouble getting wheelchairs that seemed to have struck the biggest chord with the forum, however, with chairman, Janie Thomas, describing it as a "problem".

She explained that 10 out of the 57 people who stated in their answers that they lived in the district said "yes" to the question of whether they had experienced problems getting hold of a piece of equipment - or knew someone else who had. Wheelchairs were cited as the predominant problem.

A total of 328 people filled in the survey as a whole, with 42 saying they had equipment problems and nine specifying wheelchairs and Mrs Thomas said the wheelchair problems had been confined largely to Wyre Forest answers. "Obviously, you can present the figures in lots of ways but, clearly, there is a problem with wheelchairs."

Fellow PPIF member, Mark Lawley, who is a wheelchair user himself and the chairman of Disability Action (Wyre Forest), said getting a wheelchair had always been a "slow process".

A spokesman for Redditch and Bromsgrove Primary Care Trust, which manages the equipment loan service for the whole of Worcestershire, responded by admitting there was a backlog of people to be assessed but said more staff had been recruited and there had been substantial investment in the service recently.

"We are confident that we now have the infrastructure available to ensure that clients will not have to wait as long as they have done so in the past," she added.

l An open meeting of Wyre Forest Patient and Public Involvement Forum is being held at Stourport Sports Club, Kingsway, tomorrow between 10am and 1pm.