Ben Arends (68) from Kaatsheuvel is desperate. He is visually impaired, uses a wheelchair and has an assistance dog, Robbie. To be able to walk his dog safely, he has a camera system on his wheelchair. With a camera and a screen, he can safely go out on the street with Robbie, without hitting any sidewalks. Only his system is now broken and the municipality cannot supply a new one.
Ben feels cornered, with his back against the wall. “They had already agreed,” he says emotionally. “The municipality had passed it on to Medipoint, where I am a client for my aids. But then I suddenly heard nothing anymore.”
It was only when he contacted the municipality and Medipoint himself that he was told by both parties that they could not help him further. Some complicated rules have changed, meaning that the municipality is no longer responsible.
“Medipoint will only deliver when it is clear that the health insurance will pay.”
Previously, Ben’s camera system was reimbursed from the municipality’s Wmo fund. This appears to have changed in the meantime and the health insurer now pays for it, but a referral from a doctor is first required.
“Ben doesn’t have that yet and Medipoint will only deliver when it is clear that the health insurance will pay,” a municipal spokesperson explains. “Unfortunately, we only found out that this system had changed when Ben was already at Medipoint. But of course we will help him get that referral.”
It’s a classic story of pillar and post. Ben has already called his doctor and he says that he should go to the municipality. “Everyone is pulling their hands off it and they’re saddling me with the problem,” says Ben. His voice shakes when he talks about it.
“If my dog has to go, I have to go back to an institution.”
In the meantime, he has hardly been outside for days. “Now the neighbor is outside with the dog,” says Ben. “But asking others every time is not easy. And that is actually not allowed by Hulphond Nederland, because Robbie can only get used to me.”
Ben hopes that a solution will be found soon, because without a camera system he cannot walk his dog. “Thanks to that dog, I can still do everything at home. But if I can’t walk him, he might have to leave my house. Then I can no longer continue to live independently and I have to go back to an institution. And I find that terrible.”