NHS chiefs’ latest disability strategy is ideal – for 1980s

HEALTH chiefs are basing a new disabled strategy for the Lothians on data collected nearly three decades ago, leading to claims they are underestimating the number of who need help by tens of thousands.

NHS Lothian, which is developing the strategy as part of a bid to improve the lives and care of disabled people, is working with figures which show there are 51,000 who fall into the category – taken from a 1980s census.

The health board maintains that information is the most comprehensive available, but charities estimate the number of disabled people in the Lothians at closer to 84,000 and have hit out at the board.

Ian Hood, co-ordinator of the Learning Disability Alliance Scotland, which has carried out its own surveys, said: “I think it’s very worrying that they think this is the number of people because, even if they underestimate by a small amount, it can have a severe impact on services.

“We used the 2001 Scottish Census and the 2005 Household Survey for our figures, which is far more up-to-date. It is critically important to get that number right.”

Critics have said that much has changed since the 1980s in terms of what is and isn’t classed as a disability. It has also been pointed out that people are living for longer with medical difficulties, while the population of the health board area is ever growing.

Cllr Paul Edie, the city’s health and social care leader, said: “How can we accurately plan this when the figures were taken nearly 30 years ago? It doesn’t strike me as a sound way to use information 20 or 30 years out of date.”

The strategy – which will initially receive £250,000 per year – is aimed at improving the care of the disabled and enabling them to make more of their own choices.

Cllr Lesley Hinds, Labour’s spokeswoman for health, said: “They risk underestimating the issue by using figures this old, anyone in their 20s presumably won’t be included, and there are a lot of people from then who have survived thanks to advances in medicine and in hospitals.

“It’s fair to say a census like this is the most comprehensive way of gathering information, but to be so out of date is quite alarming.”

Senior NHS board members said at a recent meeting that the information was the most accurate available, although vice-chairman Eddie Egan said using them was “a waste of energy”.

Rona Laskowski, NHS Lothian’s strategic programme manager for disabilities, said: “

Our ambition is for people with disabilities to have the same choices and opportunities as anyone else and be in control of their lives.”