NHS Waste of money and resources

When my friend moved from her own, bought house to a housing association house, which were supposedly designed for disabled people ( that's another story), she asked her occupational physio what would happen to the bidet toilet they had fitted for her and which would now be defunct due to her new home already being fitted with one. They said it would be binned ( they are an expensive bit of kit), so she asked if I could have it. They said yes, as long as we paid to get it fitted and paid for any repairs ect. So she gave it a thorough clean and we had it fitted! It's a bit like getting a dishwasher, how did we ever manage before getting it lol. Would highly recommend them if you ever find you have trouble in the 'bum wiping' area lol!

I think it depends on what area you are in as lost a dear friend recently and her aids were given back to the NHS. Freegle is a site where you can offer items like this and know they are always appreciated

We have returned one or two items my OH was trying out and they did not help - I just rang the company who supplies them and they came and picked them up and used them for someone else.

Our local hospital does not take crutches back - I found that mind-boggling!

Also, when I was in A&E overnight on a snowy day I had two cellular blankets over me on the trolley. When it came to going home, my DD asked if I could borrow these to wrap round me on the way to her car, as I was just in my pjs, and she would turn round and bring them straight back once I was installed in the car. The sister shrugged her shoulders and said "Take them - keep them"!!!!!!

They have come in very handy here as undersheets for OH on his hospital bed. But it did set me wondering whether these items get chucked after each use rather than laundered - they are some sort of synthetic material.

The approach now seems to be to do a cost assessment of re-use (laundering, checking for safety or whatever) and if the balance is negative, then out they go. The consideration of the horrifying level of waste seems to be at the bottom of the list, which is amazing in these times of eco-awareness and recycling.

The amount of stuff chucked away in hospitals is quite mind-boggling.

I used to work for a NHS Community Loan Store until the contract went to a private company. We supplied, collected and cleaned lots of pieces of equipment. However it wasn't quite so simple much of the smaller equipment was issued through Social Services. Eventually it was issued on prescription and supplied from Mobility shops/companies and once issued it was the property of the patient. Health equipment beds, mattresses, hoists were always collected. Social Services in our case told us what type of equipment of theirs we should and shouldn't collect and would only fund collection, cleaning etc. of certain equipment. So although it may appear it's the NHS is wasting money, there is often more to it.

When our local hospital closed some years ago thousands of ££££s of equipment was just left including the beds and lockers. I was told that the BBC prop department took some of the bits. The rest went to the tip.

Exactly the same in my part of Essex. Sister has just gone into a care home and seemed to have every home aid available. All were in perfect condition and some she had not even actually used. Whoever I contacted it was the same, they were unable to take them back. I took them to one of,our local charity shops who said they would not have any trouble getting rid of them. I felt it was a terrible waste of money.

Ok final post and 1 at a time. Gill, it is not my fault there is no provision nearer and although i do know some background it is not my place to discuss a clients case, suffice to say it was his choice and SS would not gainsay him.
Maryeliza, it is my job! I retired in 2011 but with a small work pension that doesn't even cover my mortgage. I cannot cherrypick what jobs i do but the return journey takes 4 hours on a good day so we leave just after 5 to collect and bring to school for 9. I do like to shower and have something to eat and drink before leaving! We then do it all again at 3 so actually do 4 trips of 78 miles, I work for a transport company so not sure why you think i should do it for free. Trisher, may be thick but don't understand your last sentence, i suggested a small contribution to food, after all it is not medical provision, if they prefer fast food i suppose someone could bring it in and they could decline hospital fare. I do not know all answers but was trying to put forward ideas to help fund our crumbling nhs. Maybe someone else can come up with a method of payment though i guess hotels manage to bill people ok after their stay. I am not sure what i have said that has riled everyone, i can only assume some do not believe we should try to avoid waste, pay toward our food or not fund a teen who wants to continue at his old school rather than unsettle him in a new one, after all he settled in his new home ok. I think it is more unsettling for him to have such long journeys. If i have said anything else to upset i apologise, but i repeat, everyone is too willing to take and not count the cost. Finally, i hate to have to justify myself but i do volunteer for age concern visiting elderly and also give history talks at their clubs.

It does seem a shocking waste of funds especially as we are constantly hearing the NHS does not get enough money. I have also read they spend ridiculous amounts of money on common small items like toilet rolls which could be delivered by supermarkets much cheaper.

The social services where I worked certainly stopped cleaning these items probably at least about 10 yrs ago at least. (Thinking how long ago it was when when I retired probably longer.)

The NHS aids of commodes frames and such other things loaned to patients used to be autoclaved and fully cleaned before being reissued.
It was a long time ago that the physio and occupational therapists stopped this . They now go around the charity shops. I cannot believe it is not cheaper to get them properly cleaned.

Do you really have to get up at 4am ie you really need the money? Of course you could save the tax payer money by doing it for free ?. Or you could start a campaign for local provision of appropriate education for your county’s children. Gosh the possibilities are endless to help

150 miles return is only 75 miles each way. You might be asking instead why the county you live in has such poor provision for children with disabilities that they have to suffer long journeys to schools, or even become weekday boarders.
You didn't say what you would do with people who spent their daily £5 on fast food.

I think your complaints are to the wrong people Lollee. Maybe you should be asking why there is not provision near to this autistic child's home ( and how do you know the child is 'mildly' autistic, by the way?), why a deaf child has to be at a school so far away that s/he has to be away from their family all week? You do sound as if you begrudge the service you are involved with. Ask any parent of a child with a learning disability and you will hear a sorry tale of how really hard, nigh on impossible it is to get a child a statement of need, let alone a personal taxi and assistant to a special school for their child.

lollee we all care. My apologies for misreading your previous post to mean £5 per meal, but you still haven't answered my other points regarding how patients would pay and how the money would be collected...

GillT I am the passenger assistant for this child who is mildly autistic, lives in one county and travels to another for school. Unfortunately i omitted to say 150 miles RETURN. The driver and I have to get up at 4am in order to do this job and I assure you he is not the only one. A colleague takes a child to a special deaf school even further away every monday and collects on friday. Not sure why every sentence has to be picked apart. I would imagine most people would feel happier knowing permanent staff were cleaners, properly trained and overseen, maybe a matron would be a good idea as no one seems answerable these days, it may even help stop mrsa to a certain extent. To a previous comment i said £5 per day not per meal, to include drinks etc so not a bad deal i think. And no one can force an adult to eat if they don't want to. It seems no one wants answers to waste and mismanagement in the nhs. As i said earlier, i am not an mp but even they dont seem to care. I dont have all the answers but i do care.

Gill

Lollee you must stop reading the Daily Mail and The Daily Express! No child is transported 150 miles to school! Some children are driven to a special school suitable for their needs, usually this journey has to be made at great expense because the funding has been withdrawn from the local, suitable school. I really can't be bothered to correct answer all your statements, but......cleaning of wards is part of the great outsourcing revolution, we all know what a success Carrillion made of it don't we? It is all about cutting costs to the bone which is one of the reasons why I was asking why my aunt's local hospital did not want her disability aids returned. As to your comments ^rather than permanent staff doing deep cleaning with a matron breathing down their necks?^ I have this vision of a fierce Hattie Jacques snorting over some trembling cleaner with a bucket and then marching towards a patient and demanding to know why they haven't eaten their lovely tapioca that cost them £2!

After a hip replacement, I gave all my aids to my local hospice, where the were very gratefully received. Occupational therapy were not interested in them being returned.

But lolee you wanted treatment at A&E that might not be necessary, just in case of infection. How does that differ from being given non-essential dressings?. Surely treatment should be the decision of the medical staff and not on-demand treatment simply because a patient thinks there might be a danger of infection?
As for food many patients are being monitored and on special diets If they were charged they might well decide to provide their own and send out for unsuitable meals.

lollee it's not clear to me how patients would pay this charge for food? would they not be given a meal if they didn't have 5 pounds with them? or would the NHS accept card payments? If you are admitted via A&E as I was, they may not have any money with them... or are they billed after discharge from hospital - and again, how do they pay? surely the bureaucracy might cost more. And what about people (including myself) who would pay less than half of £5 for a meal at home???

Maryeliza, it takes 2 to argue but just to be clear, i am not suggesting, nor would it be beneficial, to refuse all dressings to all patients carte blanche. My initial suggestion related to a time when i was given half a dozen plain gauze dressings for a relatively minor wound, did not need them all and they sat in my bathroom cabinet for ages before being thrown out. Of course if a wound merits a special dressing or ongoing visits to doctor or nurse to check and redress wound it goes without saying you would not take your own. As for food, you have to pay for your meal in a restaurant, even if you leave some. I do not feel that a token payment of £5 per day for food could ever be complained about and those who stamp their feet and refuse on the grounds of ' I pay my NI contributions, why should I, it's my right etc' are the ones who will happily stand by and watch our wonderful nhs collapse. I for one am so grateful to live in a country that has this fantastic benefit I would be happy to contribute to food, medical supplies or whatever. Damn site cheaper than dying because i can't afford a life saving operation.

I had to clear out a house and offered it to the Sally Ann's across the road!

Ah now it's not the being sent home with dressings, but the being sent home without any! Emergency care is just that. With injuries it is expected that if the situation worsens the patient will have the sense to return for more treatment. Of course you can never accommodate the idiots who don't do this.
What the hell has a child's transport and school got to do with the NHS?

Same here in the north east of Scotland.

The DM seems to be alive and well and living on this thread. I really can’t be bothered

This was a special dressing for a specific type of injury. But anyway, why should I not have been given it? It was part of my treatment. As for your comment about paying for food in hospital - whenever I’ve had family members in hospital, the ‘savings’ in not feeding them has been wiped out and more by petrol and parking charges when I’ve visited them, the costs of taking in treats or additional food for them and buying more expensive convenience food for myself or eating at the hospital whilst I waited for them to come out if theatre. Can you imagine having to produce bills for the food and patients saying I didn’t have the pudding that day or the stew was inedible - I’m not paying.