Medical Equipment: Disability
(asked on 28th October 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department made of the potential barriers that prevent disabled people from accessing lifesaving medical equipment.
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning services to meet the health needs of their local population, and responsibility for providing medical equipment to disabled people typically falls to the National Health Service and local authorities.
We expect ICBs to follow guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). In 2022, NICE published relevant guidance in relation to children, which is available at the following link:
Local authorities in England have a statutory duty, including under the Care Act 2014, to make arrangements for the provision of disability aids and community equipment to meet the assessed eligible needs of individuals who are resident in their area. Responsibility for managing the market for these services, including commissioning and oversight of delivery, rests with local authorities.
More broadly, the Government wants disabled people’s access to, and experience of, healthcare services to be equitable, effective, and responsive to their needs. Our 10-Year Health Plan for England sets out to tackle health inequalities, and specifically identifies disabled people as a priority group for neighbourhood health teams, which will offer more holistic on-going support.