'Red tape' grounds war veteran

A former soldier has virtually become a prisoner in his room after health bosses refused to issue him with a new specialised wheelchair due to legal red tape, it emerged yesterday.

David Ramsay, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, has been begging for a new electric wheelchair since his broke last November, but has been told he can only have a manual one.

His local Primary Care Trust in Northamptonshire said they could not provide an electric chair as it would contravene highways leg-islation if used on pavements and could constitute a traffic offence. But yesterday the former lance cor-poral's MP condemned the "red tape bureaucracy" stopping the veteran getting the help he desperately needs.

Peter Bone, Conservative MP for Wellingborough, where Mr Ramsay lives in a residential home, has written to the Secretary of State for Health and the local Primary Care Trust's chief executive, about the issue.

He said: "It's just mindblowingly unbelievable nonsense by the health service. This sort of red tape bureaucracy drives people mad."

Mr Ramsay, who served in the army for seven years including the first Gulf War, was diagnosed with MS in 1994 - a year after he left the army. He said he was provided with the electric wheelchair, operated with his head and chin, allowing him freedom to go out on his own, by the army.

When the chair broke last November the 40-year-old, who lives at Southwood House resi-dential care home, applied for a new one from his local PCT. But he was told any wheelchair over a certain weight could not be used on pavements, according to the law, so he would not be given one.

He said: "My wheelchair controls everything in my room because I can only move my head.

"In my electric chair I used to go outside in the garden and down town. In fact one of my carers said she remembers going shopping with me three times in one day.