Further to my theme of ‘you’re not being paranoid if the bastards are really out to get you’ we hear another disturbing piece of news from our friends over at Disability News Service (DNS).
Following yet another freedom of information request DNS has been able to report that because ministers have shelved power-cut action, this could have a serious impact upon the health of some disabled people.
An unfinished government report warned that national power cuts could cause “catastrophic deterioration” in some disabled people who rely on medical equipment in their own homes, but ministers still decided NOT to draw up plans to protect them.
The DHSC scoping paper – Rolling Power Outages: Medical equipment and vulnerable people – considered what advice was available for disabled people who rely on mains-powered medical devices at home and whether there was a need for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to issue its own guidance. This report was left unfinished last summer.
The report – significant chunks of which are redacted – admitted that “in a national power outage scenario it would not be possible to notify PSR households pre-emptively” that they were about to lose electricity.
DHSC decided not to draw up any guidance and to leave it to individual disabled people and their “care teams” to draw up plans for “how they can prepare for and respond to loss of power to their home”.
That conclusion was reached even though the document makes clear that some disabled people could be “at very high risk of catastrophic deterioration” if the power cut was unexpected or continued for longer than their equipment’s batteries lasted. It also warned of the “significant impact on vulnerable people who rely on the use of medical equipment at home for their health and care” if there were national blackouts.
The paper also admitted that there were significant flaws with the system of local priority services registers (PSRs), which are supposed to ensure energy companies provide “enhanced support to their more vulnerable customers”.
And the paper warned of “an issue” with understanding how many devices supporting “the more critical conditions” were being used in disabled people’s homes. It said this information “would be critical to have in the event of planned outages so that the government have a clear idea of the impact and where support is required”.
And it also admitted that in a “reasonable worst-case scenario” in at least some types of “national power outage”, services such as providing emergency power to those on the PSR who rely on “at home medical equipment” would “not be available due to the scale and complexity of the outage”.
It is just the latest attempt by DNS over the last 16 months – in the face of government resistance – to find out what plan ministers have put in place to protect people who rely on equipment such as CPAP machines, ventilators, oxygen concentrators, nebulisers and dialysis machines in the event of a major blackout.
Read the full report in Disability News Service.
Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software
An elderly Black male is sat in a wheelchair with an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose. Behind him are other pieces of electrical medical equipment. At his feet is a copy of Disability News Service with the headline ‘No plans to assist disabled when power cuts hit’. Standing in front of him is a white, bearded male wearing a ‘Vote Tory’ rosette and holding a single, lit candle. Attached to the candle is a sign that reads ‘Emergency Power Source’. He is saying to the Black male: “Never let it be said Sir that your caring sharing Tory Party doesn’t always have a solution to your problems!”
You can still register with the Priority Services Register (PSR) to receive (in theory) extra help and support should you experience an outage of gas, electric or water supply.
Crippen Cartoons 