NHS Waste of money and resources

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.

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...

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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

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!

lollee I tried to explain earlier that many patients are on specialised diets- low sodium, low potassium etc. If their meals are supplied by the hospital they can be carefully monitored. However quite a few patients are resistant to changes in their diet, they comply at present because the food is supplied to them. If they were charged they might well decide to buy in unsuitable food which would further damage their health.
I don't think anyone with a child with special needs deliberately chooses to subject their child to a long journey. They do seek out the very best in schools for their child as I think you will agree they are entitled to do. Perhaps you should be grateful to this child's family for providing you with an income.

Gave ours to local Charity run Care home - in which my Dad spent his last few months.. but we kept the wheelchair as not getting any younger my Mum , me and OH!

It doesn’t surprise me in the least. When my SIL died last year, we had no problem returning the equipment to Millbrook (who were very efficient in collecting it) but trying to hand back massive supplies of boxed dressings which had only been delivered days previously proved impossible. The utter waste in the NHS is still scandalous.

I was at a family party last week and one of my cousins, who is an accountant who has worked in and around the NHS for many years was absolutely scathing about the NHS financial management.

He considered that its buying policies and failure to properly control its invoicing, leaves it wide open to fraud, of the petty kind and that proper financial management could lead to up to £1 billion being made available for clinical services.

Shortly after my husband died, I had a letter saying that the items he`d had were being collected. I was surprised at them wanting the raised toilet seat back, but they did, so we had to buy another, because my daughter needed it as well. The only things they didn`t ask for were the grab handles and the extra doorstep. All the items were loaned for my husband`s use, but by the time he died we were all making use of some of them.

When I was in hospital a while ago , there was a Chinese woman in the bed opposite whose family ran a restaurant. They brought in Chinese takeaways for her meal every evening! When the other patients stated getting envious, they brought in food for the rest of us!
Reminded me that in Italy it used to be the case that the family were expected to provide food for patients in hospitals.
Sorry I know this thread isn’t about hospital food but it did get a mention earlier.
It’s also the case where prescription medicines, even if completely unopened are chucked out and can’t be returned.

When my dad died his equipment was all taken back by SS including a commode , but when the grandkids break or sprain ankles etc they won’t take the walking aids back at the hospital but they are useful to keep and have been lent out to other parents
My charity shop sells wheelchairs, walkers etc and I sent others in the van to Syria
There is always a better way than the tip

I was at a hospital today for a scan. This might seem like a small thing but I noticed that the paper towels were very thin and you needed at least 3 to do the job.

When the nurse was preparing to put in a canula for me, he washed his hands (for which I am grateful!) but he pulled at the towels 10 times, each time with more than one towel coming down. This must go on over and over again all day every day. The cheap towels look like a false economy.

Hope results are good news Luckygirl.

a physio or OT on MN ran through the costings of the staffing that would be needed to properly clean, service, repair & approve returned zimmer frames (which can cause horrific impailing injuries if they've been inappropriately used and structurally comprimised, eg carers putting their foot in the non load bearing bar at the front) and it made sense to not re-issue them.

However IMO they SHOULD still collect them to get them appropriately recycled if theyre not going to re-use

Sometime in the not too distant past there was a news article about this very thing . The reason is because it costs more to collect , clean and maintain equipment than to buy new ones . This throw away society affects the NHS too.