ACTION was taken yesterday by the Health and Social Services Department to try to contain the damage caused by revelations that it had selectively quoted from a critical report about wheelchair provision in the Bailiwick.

Its first move was for the minister to quietly rubbish the work done by one of his own staff in carrying out the research. The second was to invite deputies to a media-free presentation, no doubt to ‘put the record straight’.

This is rapidly becoming a very shabby affair.

HSSD ought to be providing a satisfactory (as a minimum) wheelchair service or explaining why it cannot and what steps it is taking to remedy the situation.

The evidence – and it is far more than just the report itself – indicates that what is currently provided is not fit for purpose.

Yet the department is more concerned about damage limitation and closing down discussion about its attempts to mislead States members than it is about improving the lot of the island’s 1,000 wheelchair users.

The minister’s criticisms of the report do not hold water either.

Its methodology is clearly set out and, if it is as deficient as he now makes out, why didn’t the author’s manager put her straight at the time? Or ask for revisions on seeing the first draft?

As it is, the report was deemed sufficiently acceptable to go to the political board, which suggests that it is only now the adverse publicity has started that there is a need to question its validity.

The minister’s chief objection to it, a rather involved matter regarding a sampling method used to obtain results, seems to miss the point.

Either islanders who need a wheelchair are getting the right piece of equipment in an acceptable time or they are not.

The department cannot answer, yes. The report definitely says no. The average wait to be assessed for a chair is over a month and there’s a further three months before it arrives – and each process has taken up to a year.

Instead of wriggling, the department should simply come clean about the problems it faces.

That, at least, would give it some credibility.