The BBC has highlighted the problems around weight management facing wheelchair users.
Researchers for BBC Online spoke to wheelchair users who told how they have gone for years without being able to weigh themselves because of difficulties accessing scales.
The report found that little is being done to address the situation.
Lizzie, who is 37 and lives in Devon, told the BBC she has been through three successful pregnancies, all without knowing how her body was adapting or how her baby was growing.
She said: “”The last time I was weighed was about 22 years ago. I think I was about 15.”
Lizzie has a degenerative muscle-related impairment making it difficult to weigh herself on traditional bathroom scales, which require you to stand still and independently on a small platform.
She said it involves “sitting down really quickly, lifting my feet up, which is like a ridiculous yoga pose, and trying to balance.”
The BBC also spoke to Gillian Morphy, who had her right leg amputated due to dystonia, which causes uncontrolled and sometimes painful muscle movements. She said is trying to lose weight, but was last weighed at her local amputee clinic six months ago.
Gillian said: “Every appointment you go to you’re told ‘you’ve got to lose weight’. But we’re not helped, nobody’s telling me how. I don’t want to be putting so much weight through my left leg because I don’t want to cause any problems there.”
The BBC reported that there is equipment to help wheelchair users but none of it is widely available. Chair scales enable someone to sit on a seat which records their weight and there are similar bed and hoist versions too. There are also wheel-on scales which are very large and involve subtracting the weight of the chair afterwards.
Ability Superstore, which has been operating for 13 years and has served 100,000 clients, calls itself the “home of mobility aids” in the UK. The BBC said the company had never been asked for accessible scales and believes that is that comes down to cost – with accessible versions often retailing for hundreds of pounds.
Dr Georgie Budd, who is based in Merthyr Tydfil, told the BBC this worries her as a wheelchair user herself.
She said: “There’s a lot of things that we use weight for in health – anaesthetics and drug dosing – and just to keep an eye on it as well for someone’s general health. During pregnancy for example, if someone was losing weight I, as a GP, would actually be really quite concerned.”
She added that weight management can be crucial, especially for those who use wheelchairs.
She said: “You’re not using your big leg muscles anymore so you’re not burning as many calories and access to actually exercising as a disabled person is less than I would like it to be.”
The BBC reported that neither NHS England nor the government have guidance for doctors nor advice on what equipment to use and no figures are kept on how many hospitals have access to such equipment and where they are.
It added that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) previously considered the issue in 2014 and requested more research be carried out. But so far nothing has been started.
