A disabled woman has hit out at a private health firm after the new wheelchair she was provided with repeatedly broke.

She has only been able to use it four times in six months.

Within days of getting the chair, Clare Wadey came within inches of crashing into a bus stop when the brakes failed. On another occasion balance problems resulted in her almost toppling over, and the underside of the chair cut her knuckles.

But the 43-year-old has now been told by Millbrook Healthcare that she must pay towards the cost of a new one as the current Breezy Basix 2 model, a manual wheelchair, is “not suitable for her needs”.

Miss Wadey, of Saxon Place, Horton Kirby, said: “It’s nothing to do with my needs. They’ve come out repeatedly and can’t fix it. The chair is clearly broken.”

Between July and December Miss Wadey contacted Millbrook a number of times and was told last month staff would phone the company’s 29 sites to see if a replacement chair could be found. Four weeks later only one call had been made.

Miss Wadey said since Millbrook was awarded the Kent and Medway Wheelchair Services three-year £895,850 contract by the NHS in April, it had been plagued by issues, with several users venting their frustration online. Millbrook now caters for around 23,000 across the county.

She said: “My old chair was slightly worse for wear and when they offered me a brand new one I was happy. But if I could get the old one out of a skip now, I would.

“I can’t fault the engineers’ attempts to put it right but they are working with a product which is clearly not fit for purpose.

“I’ve spent more time strapped into an ambulance on the way to get it looked at than out and about in it. Even ambulance provider G4S has told them it’s not right.”

The company said it would not comment on individual cases but confirmed it was working with Miss Wadey to resolve the issues.