Wheelchairs, Walkers and Mobility Aids

For short-term use, buy them yourself and do not pay anyone to assess you. A pair of crutches after an ankle fracture, a basic walking frame for the first weeks after a hip replacement, or a folding wheelchair for the occasional outing are all sold over the counter without a prescription. Dis-Chem lists crutches, walking sticks, walking frames, rollators and folding wheelchairs online. Ask the physiotherapist already treating you to set the height. Fitting starts to matter when the chair becomes the seat you live in, when sensation is reduced, when the condition is progressive, or when the user is a growing child.

Yes, through the state health system, if you qualify for free health care. South Africa's national guideline on assistive devices says devices should form part of the service package offered free of charge to qualifying members, naming children under six and people with disabilities who qualify for free health care, with everyone else charged on the state patient fee schedule. The route is a referral to the rehabilitation or therapy department at your nearest state hospital, where a trained rehabilitation provider assesses and prescribes the device. Waiting times vary widely by province and district. If that is the better route for you, we will say so.

Most schemes contribute, but from an appliance or external medical items benefit rather than from your day-to-day cover. Expect two limits: a rand amount for the year, and how often the item may be replaced. Discovery Health Medical Scheme's 2026 external medical items rules, for example, fund a wheelchair once every three years, a walker once every three years and crutches once a year, and pay for non-preferred products only up to the Discovery Health Rate, leaving you the shortfall. Cover differs between schemes and between plans on the same scheme, so get your benefit confirmed in writing before anything is ordered.

Wheelchair size is a set of measurements, not a small, medium or large. Seat width is measured across the widest point of the hips while seated, with roughly three to five centimetres added so the hips and thighs are not pressed against the armrests. Seat depth runs from the back of the hip to just short of the knee, so the seat cannot dig in behind the knee. Seat height is set so the footplates clear the floor. A chair that is too wide is harder to push, harder to get through a doorway, and supports posture poorly.

If you sit in the chair for most of the day, you need a pressure redistributing cushion. The international pressure injury guideline recommends a seating surface with pressure redistribution properties for anyone sitting who has, or is at risk of, a pressure injury, and warns specifically against ring or doughnut shaped cushions, which concentrate pressure instead of spreading it. The cushion is matched to your dimensions, your posture and whether sensation is intact. No cushion replaces movement: the same guideline asks wheelchair users to shift their weight regularly. If your shape, posture or ability changes, the seating needs looking at again.

A walking frame gives more stability, a rollator covers more ground. A standard frame is lifted and placed with each step, which is slow but very stable, and suits short indoor distances and the early weeks after surgery. A rollator rolls on wheels, has hand brakes and usually a seat, and suits walking outdoors, shopping, and anyone who needs somewhere to rest along the way. Choose for where the walking actually happens. One rule covers both: never haul yourself up out of a chair by the frame. Push up off the chair arms first, then take the handles.

The handle should sit level with the crease of your wrist when you stand upright with your arm hanging at your side, which puts about 20 degrees of bend in the elbow at the grip. On underarm crutches, the top pad sits roughly two and a half to four centimetres below the armpit, and your hands, not your armpits, carry your weight. Leaning on the pads presses on the radial nerve in the armpit and can cause weakness and wrist drop. A walking stick goes in the hand opposite the sore leg, not the same side.

We come to you. Mobility equipment is assessed where it will be used, so home visits are the normal way we work across Centurion, Pretoria, Midrand, Sandton and Johannesburg, and we see patients at the hospital bedside before discharge. Doorway widths, the height of the bed and the toilet, the step at the front door and the surface underfoot all change which device is right, and none of it is visible in a consulting room. Consulting rooms in Morningside, Sandton are available by appointment if you would rather come in.

Yes. Farida Cajee-Botes is a private orthotic and prosthetic practice, and we do not bill medical schemes directly. Accounts are settled in full at the time of your assessment or on collection of your device, and we give you a detailed invoice with the appropriate codes so you can submit the claim to your medical aid and be reimbursed directly by them. Where it helps your claim, we prepare the itemised quotation, clinical motivation and pre-authorisation paperwork before anything is ordered. What your scheme pays back depends on your plan and available benefits, and that decision rests with the scheme, so any amount they do not cover remains payable by you.