You Stole My Legs

Lied to, lied about, disrespected in my own home, bullied, complaints brushed under the carpet, advised to email only not to call anymore. All made by one company that says and I quote “We provide High-Quality, outcome-led, services in wheelchair & Community equipment” .

There is a huge misconception that most people believe that when you have a disability we’re given everything so freely. I can’t remember a time when I’ve not had to fight for something I’ve needed to keep my Independence. Just once it would be nice to feel like you don’t have to fight tooth and nail or explain why I think I’m entitled to keep my Independence.

I have a rare form of muscular dystrophy a Progressive muscle wasting condition that affects my legs and arm muscles, as much as I’d love to say to you all my powered wheelchair is a prop. It isn’t, it’s very much key bit of equipment to keep my independence as it acts as my legs as I’m unable to walk myself. So try to imagine what it would feel like if somebody told you, you couldn’t use your legs for six plus months because it isn’t safe but also you cannot have the new ones you was promised.Who am I taking about AJM Healthcare based in Milton Keynes I truly thought that the last company that dealt with the NHS wheelchairs called Millbrooks Healthcare were bad but AJM Healthcare have taken it to a different level.

Where did it all go wrong!?

I’ve been fighting with AJM Healthcare for nearly 2 yrs. 2 yrs too long. Everything that’s happened has been spread out over the two years to the present date.

You can excuse the odd mistakes or a bad day we all have them but when you feel like a company is deliberately targeting you for no reason it can become mentally draining as well as damaging to your health. There are no excuses for the way that AJM Healthcare staff have treated me over the last 2 years.

1st encounter was at their building I was talked over, treated as If I wasn’t the one in the wheelchair and the expert on my own body, that everything I was feeling when using my wheelchair was in my head, the engineer was full of ideas he felt I needed ignoring my actual needs. That the wheelchair itself is perfectly fine and sturdy ignoring the fact there was more rattles and shakes than A rattlesnake in a shake and Vac advert.

2nd encounter a few months later receiving a letter saying I’d missed an appointment that I never received, calling to rearrange an appointment I had no knowledge of, then unfortunately the morning of that rearranged appointment I was unwell, calling AJM Healthcare to inform them I wouldn’t be able to attend the appointment a female answered, we’ll call her K. I’d spoken to her previously, giving my apologies on not being able to attend as I was unwell, K responded with an attitude ‘This is the second time you’ve called in telling us you’re sick, we need to know 24 in advance I’m going to close your file as we can’t give you another appointment because you missed more than two‘. I was peechless at the way she was so rude plus feeling like I now need to explain my immune system is weak and I can catch anything at the drop of a hat but also reminding her that I was disabled and the last appointment was missed because I never received an appointment.

3rd encounter a home visit. Putting previous experiences with AJM Healthcare staff aside i was optimistic, I was told that I was over using my wheelchair it should only ever be used for 3 hours then I need to get out for 10 minutes then back in it again. REALLY. To tell a disabled person who relys so heavily on a wheelchair as their legs, that they cannot use their legs is ridiculous, pointing that out to him he quickly turned round and said “let me rephrase that”. My answer you can’t rephrase that. again being told wheelchair was fit for purpose while shaking and rattling as he’s shaking it! my Gel cushion seating was uncomfortable it was hurting my poor butt, but apparently this had years of life we will just fill it out with more gel padding!

4th encounter I tweeted about my home visit experience and utter disgusted at what said to me as a disabled person to receive a DM response asking for my number as the Milton Keynes manager Will give me a call, that call never came.

5th encounter being disabled I deal with lots of professionals from all different Sectors from Occupational therapist, social workers and neurologist specialist some of these people have known me for at least up to 15 years, so it’s not unusual for me to get random calls here and there from anyone of these people as they do all my referrals to people like AJM Healthcare, but when you get two professionals that give you the same story about an email they had both received six months apart from each other, from K at AJM healthcare informing them that I was being difficult and hadn’t shown up to several appointments! I couldn’t believe it how dare she, not just once but twice to two professionals Mrs B and Mrs K who both have known me for years thankfully both know me better. It didn’t stop me from feeling as if I was being targeted and bullied by her via an email behind my back.

6th encounter finally getting to talk to the Milton Keynes manager we will call her L, Explain to her about my past experiences and my home visit she assured me she would rectify this situation, also trying to brush under the carpet the emails that K had sent to 2 professionals that deal with me on a regular basis. Tell me I’d taken it the wrong way.

6th encounter Mrs B received an email from K inviting her to attend an appointment at my home, responding back asking why she got nothing back from K both of us unsure why I called AJM healthcare to ask why speaking to K she repeated Several times that she had spoken to Mrs B on the telephone and she was fully aware of what the appointment was about, which I obviously knew was a complete lie she hadn’t it was via email and Mrs B had no idea what was going on as there is no exclamation within the email, so explaining to K that she might need to give Mrs B a call and explain what the appointment was about as she had no idea she again repeated she had spoken to her by phone and she was aware what the appointment was about, by this time I’d had enough of the constant lies from K so I laughed and said this isn’t the first time you’ve not told the entire truth is it,  K then got very defensive and aggressive clearly didn’t like the fact you’ve been caught out on her lies so I asked to speak to L the manager again.

7th encounter after making a formal complaint about K I received recorded voice message from L the manger and within this voice message L hadn’t quite put the phone down properly so she was heard talking about me telling K that I wasn’t a happy bunny and we need to take it seriously as it’s a complaint.

8th encounter several phone calls from a regional manager we will call S dealing with my complaint it definitely wasn’t taken seriously it was very much brushed under the carpet and I was told that they felt that K haven’t done anything wrong and hadn’t lied on several occasions and I was no longer allowed to call the main number as this was the number that K answered I was to now to only directly deal with and email the manager L from this point on.

9th encounter 2nd home visit nearly 45 minutes late which didn’t impress Mrs B so she called to find out where they were as I was her only appointment that day to finally have her first ever telephone conversation with K (remember K repeatedly said she’d already spoken to Mrs B) finally arriving to the appointment it didn’t take long for the engineer that travelled down from London to cover Milton Keynes to look over my wheelchair and say i’m sorry to say your wheelchair isn’t fit for purpose it’s dangerous to be using it, it hasn’t been fit for use for a long time now. Finally someone could see what I had been saying for a year my chair was a right off It was like music to my ears. before leaving The Occupational Theraphy from AJM Healthcare told me that I’ll be getting a new wheelchair and seating and when she gets back to the office she will get a quote sent out to me ASAP for the extra bits that I need and also get the new wheelchair and seating ordered.

10th encounter Mrs B receives another email from K inviting her to another appointment this time it was to trial my new wheelchair, which we were both very confused about as the last conversation that we all had with AJM Healthcare was that my new wheelchair would be ordered and my next appointment would be me receiving it. mrs B was clearly now concerned as I have a £4000 bit of kit attached to the back of my old wheelchair that my neater arms that right now I can’t use because my current wheelchair doesn’t work properly.

11th encounter I attended Muscular Dystrophy muscle meeting where I was surprised to find that one of our speakers was from AJM Healthcare we will call him R, my blood was boiling listening R basically bigger up AJM Healthcare and how amazing they were just rattled my cage even more, in a way I do feel sorry for R they got all of my anger, my upset in one fell swoop, after everything they’ve put me through I burst into tears in front of a room full of people that had known for years that had no idea what AJM Healthcare is put me through. R wanted to privately speak to me afterwards as they where fully aware of my issues. R reassured me that they were now going to deal with my case get my new wheelchair up and running and also deal with my complaint instead of having them brushed under the carpet. In someway I truly wanted to believe that that was the case, but when you’re told your new wheelchair will be put on order as well as the extras and the funding will be sourced after then nothing arrives, no communication you can’t help but feel like you’ve been the treated the same way again by an AJM healthcare staff member lied to and let down.

12th encounter I find it very hard plus a little too convenient and very fishy, wanting to check in and make sure that after this pandemic is over that I would be receiving my new wheelchair I emailed R, obviously unsure if they were on furlough or working I thought I would give it a go, so then a week later receive a phone call from an AJM Healthcare staff member asking if I’d received the quote in the post, slightly confused I asked why I was just now receiving a quote for the extra parts, when as far as I was concerned R had everything under control the last time I spoke to R, this was followed with an email after the call informing me that they had checked my file and there was nothing, totally not shocked that was the case I made that point in my response email. The following day I received another phone call from AJM Healthcare staff member to inform me that R had in fact left the building around Easter time that there was no information on my file to say that any funding had been sourced and that I should never of been informed of that and I have to source the funding myself for the extras and that my new wheelchair will not be ordered until I can do just that. Heartbroken I cried and asked what more do you want from me have you not put me through enough, have you not destroyed my mental health enough!? I got nothing no answer.

It’s taken them 8 months to send me this invoice/quote they have no care in the world to the fact that they have left me with a wheelchair that is not fit for purpose and dangerous for me to use. We are now in a pandemic where I have no way of being able to source any funding for the extra parts that I need for my new wheelchair as no charities are taking applications which is understandable in the situation that we are in right now.

AJM Healthcare have knowingly taken my legs away from me. lied about me, played with my mental health, character assassinated me and yet apparently still not done. 

It’s hard to have any level of respect for AJM Healthcare when they so freely feel it’s acceptable to treat someone me the way they do.

Kerry 💋

Come give me a follow and say hi:

Twitter | Facebook |Pinterest| Instagram