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Re: I have been upgraded...

PostPosted: 27 Jul 2021, 10:22
by Burgerman
I am non official. They send their staff on day courses. Sometimes 2 days. Heres some from sunrise. https://www.sunrisemedical.co.uk/steps- ... ourse-list

To learn about powerchairs. But most of the people they send are about as technical as my mum. She could go on every course thay had. And while these are not very technical she wouldnt learn a damned thing from them. Female OTs or the odd ex mower guy working in the workshop who mostly swaps manual chair tyres are the same. Mostly.

They go through the very dumbed down motions. And listen. And watch vids. And try hands on stuff with a laptop etc. But they come away with 1% understanding in a very narrow field on a specific course/chair/programming thing/seating and control options. These are thinly disguised marketing tools to sell more of their stuff if you ask me. And they go back to their NHS coffee meetings and probably dont program anything at all for a month. And forgot the very limited amount they learned. But they are qualified with a bit of paper. You need good engineers, people that understand this stuff that are interested in the kind of thing. People with a natural aptitude for engineering and physics. And thats what most OTs and WCS staff are generally not.

So we get what we get. And they are ALLOWED the tools, no clue how to use them, or why one would want say the 6mph 4 pole motors programmed down to 4mph as per their speed remit in place of the actual 4mph motors. Little things that need a technical understanding. And they are lost. God forbid they have to figure out a complex alternative controls for someone or seating option changes etc.

In an ideal world you would employ only people that had a clue. Such as rover, myself, etc. All the OTs that assess and order and attempt to configure or program a chair NEED this level of knowledge. Probably 1 in 1000 actually has even half of that. But they dont employ the right people, its the NHS.Its a socialist run assylum. All they want to know is if they filled the diversity quota, if the person they employed has all their wants and needs and meetings and cake. Ability, and work ethic, and the ability to actually accept some responsibility is usually completely missing. They hang around in groups of 2 or 3 so nobody has to make a decision. Group think, assessements, panels, etc is how socialism works. And they will and do employ all those that the real capitalist world wont.

If I ran my doctors I would fire all the receptionists and those that do prescriptions same day and get competant staff. But its not run as a business and so they dont care how crap they are. They get paid regardless. Same across the whole NHS. There are some very good people. And some completely hopeless ones. All run in an unbelievably hopeless wasteful way.

Re: I have been upgraded...

PostPosted: 27 Jul 2021, 12:02
by biscuit
I recall my older step sister's sales job included outboard motors and as the business was the Yamaha outboards agent, she went on Yamaha's strip and rebuild course, which was hands-on as it was in the 80s when hands-on was valued. Though an air brained clothes-horse by preference, she came back pretty clued up.

At the mobility shop down the road the assistant a couple of years ago told me the battery box on my Vienna chair was expanding from me overcharging my batteries. I doubt that he'd ever done a course.

There is some hope for those who attend courses.

Re: I have been upgraded...

PostPosted: 27 Jul 2021, 13:00
by Burgerman
They can help. But mostly if you are really interested you would already know and would have figured all of it out long before a course. I have never been on any courses for anything. I can build race engines, turbos injection systems and nitrous injection systems, map them all from scratch with insane power outputs safey, and set up all the boost retard/fuel mapping etc on my own also home designed rolling roads. I build gas turbines and pulse jets and their fuel systems from scratch. I build and understand powerchairs, computers, and everything hobby wise I can get my hands on. Nobody taught me anything. I was just interested in how everything works and cannot live till I know! Curious about the world to an insane level. From schooldays till now. I learned physics the same way and by reading intensely about anything I didnt know. Thats how I learned everything.

Chair programming? Study, test, change stuff, test, change something else, measure, test, feel what it did, over and over. Find what works, and what doesent. Figure out why.

My mum? Not so much. I would get probably nothing from a course on programming and would be bored shitless. But I would learn something probably totally unrelated because of curiosity! My mum, she would learn nothing to very little because she wouldnt know what the hell they were talking about. And she seems awfully similar to those nice ladies at the WCS that assess you. If you dont understand oHms law, and basic DC motor theory or batteries and charging then how on earth can you ever properly program a chair for e.g. Everything is interrelated. A course on its own is all but useless.

Re: I have been upgraded...

PostPosted: 28 Jul 2021, 11:20
by Burgerman
To be fair, IF the people they employed were remotely interested they would be ON HERE ALREADY.

Asking questions, reading and or helping. At least learning a little. Those that are genuinely interested such as rover200 are on here. The other 99% dont care and are simply not interested. And thats the real problem.

So the real question is where are the other techs/OT's etc? There must be 1000s across the NHS and private dealers. And theres just a handful on here. They only attend those day courses run by various manufacturers as its a sort of jolly. Where they get to eat cake and stay in a hotel. And because the wasteful NHS sends them. Think I am cynical? If so, where are they all?