AIBU to wonder whether people take th NHS for granted?

Doodledog I opt to go privately for physio and only pay £50 a session. It is a good sized private clinic so not sure why an NHS session should be more than 3x that cost.

I have found some internet sites which may help you pass on your unwanted equipment. There were others. If you try a search for what is possible in your own area, you may find that there is more going on than you thought. These sites seemed to still be current, but it would be best to check.

www.scope.org.uk/advice-and-support/second-hand-disability-equipment/
Within 30 miles of Milton Keynes, covering Dunstable, Northampton, Bedford and Buckingham. Call free on 0800 011 3005.
Within 30 miles of Doncaster, covering Sheffield, Leeds and Wakefield. Call free on 0800 121 4670.

www.hospitalmart.co.uk/ an online listing site for Medical / Hospital Organisations to sell any unwanted, used, preowned, refurbished, redundant, slow moving Hospital / Medical Equipment, or Disposables.The objective of our site is to generate much needed income and reduce costs in what is a difficult financial environment. Point your local hospital in their direction.

www.ed.ac.uk/medicine-vet-medicine/news-events/latest-news/student-run-charity-collects-and-transports-unwant Edinburgh students and alumni are collecting out of date medical equipment and excess supplies and sending them to places worldwide where they are needed most.

The 3X is probably to dissuade patients from failing to turn up without contacting the receptionist!

Having owned dogs in the past, no way do I take our NHS for granted!
I'm a huge fan of all our emergency services, plus volunteer organisations such as RNLI, Mountain Rescue etc.

My husband had significant back surgery last year and when discharged home he was issued with a walking aid and two commodes. None of which he used but the hospital refused to take them .back, despite several phone calls.
In the end we found a company which does collect NHS aids, cleans them and then returns them to the NHS.
They do free collections too
If we hadn’t been persistent in our desire to return theses reusables they would have no doubt been skipped.
The department which issues these items must do more to ensure that that they are returned to save money and avoid waste

Elegran's links are very helpful. This is a great example of how the public can be informed of ways of reducing waste and helping the needy.

Rivernana We can post anything we find on how to recycle and re-use stuff to Gransnet, too.

Great idea. Perhaps start a specific new thread Elegran?

EllenVannin, I think that the prescription charge has to be averaged out. Some medications cost a lot.
The system works, I suppose to some extent because most of us believe in supporting the system for the general good of the population.

If your medications only cost pennies why don’t you go and buy them at the chemist? Save the time of a dispenser and admin costs.

My mother in law had paracetamol prescribed by the doctor. She was always asking me to go round and get a new prescription because she was running out. When I suggested that I should just pick some up from the supermarket because they only cost pennies she always flatly refused because she got them for nothing from the doctor. When she died I found a cupboard stuffed with boxes of bloody paracetamol. It meant we didn't have to buy any for years.

Deedaa, they cost all of 40p in the local shop! I don't think anyone needs prescriptions for those or ibuprofen.

I've always thought it's ridiculous to get free meals in hospital. I understand that it ensures nobody goes without BUT why not a voluntary payment scheme? We've always donated to the hospital but a formal scheme would be welcome.

Interesting posts about crutches etc not being returnable. Several years ago DS was working in Germany and damaged ligaments in his knee. Hospital gave him crutches as part of his treatment, which was evidently not covered by EU health insurance as he was hounded for the cost of the crutches for months - bills in German that we didn't understand how to pay. We eventually had a letter from a UK debt collector who the German authorities had authorised. Didn't mind paying up but we were gobsmacked by the totally different attitude of our lackadaisical NHS

Maybe things have changed in the NHS in the 14 years since I had my hip replacement but I was certainly told to hand back my crutches when I had no further need of them.
I always refuse to have paracetamol on prescription, since they are 25p for a pqck of 16 in Aldi. I also buy my own Gaviscon Advance, although I can have it on prescription. The pharmacist changed it to a product with the same formula but which didn't taste the same, and didn't feel as viscous.

I don't think prescriptions should be used for items that can be bought over the counter relatively cheaply, eg paracetamol and aspirin. Do people necessarily realise that each item is charged at £9.00? Perhaps a high profile campaign would help to educate people and reduce costs.

As for items like crutches, I am not sure whether it is safe or practical for all such items to be returned and re-used.

Trisher we are talking about unused, unopened medicines. Also perhaps a set up like food banks where anything that can be reused is stored for needy charities to visit and claim. Any savings are better than nothing and reduction of waste that helps the needy is surely a good thing as well?

Rivernana there will be people who could and would find ways to tamper with medicines so that they looked unopened. It isn't too difficult. Injecting substances, contaminating medicines. It may be rare but it is possible. Do you think that poorer people who use food banks etc deserve a lower standard of care than the rest of us? The rules abut binning medicines are there for a reason. It's very similar to the situation in some countries where you can buy over the counter anti-biotics. Their over use has resulted in resistant strains of bacteria. You may have very good intentions but the practicalities and the very real dangers have to be taken into account. Restrictions on medicines and their re-use are there to maintain safety standards.

I agree that we need to be really careful about the safety of medicines that have already been “out there”. But I can’t see any justification at all for made-up prescriptions, still at the pharmacy, being destroyed if not collected within a fortnight.

Presumably because once passed by the pharmacist they are not stored in secure conditions. It might be possible to find a secure way of storing them but if so then the pharmacist would have to authorise their release, making more delays at the counter.

Does anyone know the cost of producing and dispensing a prescription? I mean the cost on top of the medication.

A couple of years ago there was a consumer programme on TV where they talked a lot about the non-returnable crutches etc. Apparently the cost of cleaning them was too much but after a while they persuaded a couple of hospitals to do it. I would have thought that now we have such huge hospital trusts it would be possible.

Whilst I agree with many of the points re waste, especially non-attendance at appointments, prescription items, etc, etc, I sometimes feel a little suspicious when these issues are brought up on TV and social media. There is such a thing as the "nudge" agenda, whereby people's opinions are deliberately swayed towards a specific view on a particular subject.

I believe one of the methods used by the "nudge" theory is to draw people's attention to the behaviour and opinions of others in any given situation because most people tend, subconsciously, to adopt social norms. For instance, it was found that if hotels which put up notices asking guests to think of re-using their towels in order to save the environment, it did change people's behaviour. But such a notice was made much more effective by telling them that other guests in the hotel reused their towels. Neither approach was as effective as telling them that other guests in that exact room reused their towels. It seems that people like to feel that their opinions and behaviours are broadly in line with that of other people.

It could be said that if this "nudge" principle is a good thing because it is not dictatorial but it does point people in the right direction - i.e. to be more socially responsible.

But my view is it can be used to manipulate people for less altruistic reasons. On the Jeremy Vine programme this morning, panellists discussed the use of waste within the NHS, with particular reference to non-attendance at appointments. The general feeling was that those who made appointments but didn't attend them should be "fined", or that a patient should pay an amount upfront which would be returned if the appointment was kept, but retained if it was not.

Non-attendance is a fairly significant problem and I expect many people would feel that some sort of measures should be adopted to prevent this happening so regularly.

However, the discussion quickly morphed into the subject of paying a figure of between £10 and £25 for each GP appointment. The figures from a poll were provided, saying that something like 40% of the people asked agreed with this idea. It was just one poll, and viewers will have had no idea how this survey was constructed - who and how many people were asked, how questions were framed, etc, etc. It could be argued that the "nudge" principle was being used to mould public opinion in the direction of seeing payment, on top of general taxation, for certain NHS services as desirable. This could be the foundation for a complete reversal of the whole ethos behind our present health system.

I have now signed. Thank you OP for putting this up on the forum.

I ahve a friend who worked for 10 years in the NHS and he never stopped talking about all the ways money was wasted.....despite all those bl**dy managers.
also a waste of money

I also think the "missed appointments" talk is a red herring.

So much real waste by people like hospital managers who are paid to do their job is the real problem.

Trisher I didn't mean that people who use food banks should have second hand medicines and supplies. I meant that perhaps a system like food banks for food could be set up for medical supplies to assess what was safe to distribute and charities and other organisations could collect from there.

But the cost Rivernana who is to meet the cost?

Trisher your point is so valid. That is why there are two sections to my petition. One to ask for a nationwide programme to educate people in the amount of waste taking place and what they can do to reduce waste. That does not need to cost a fortune. The second section is about the items that are left unused and which are safe to reuse - like dressings, disposable gloves etc. Too much to include on one short post. There are so many things to think of, but if we could make a start somewhere, spread awareness, have a dialogue with friends and family, even if the Health Secretary takes no notice of my petition we can spread the message and all take steps to make a difference. It's a case of do we want to try to do something to help our NHS to thrive, not just survive, or are we to just wring our hands and complain and let things get worse. All opinions welcome and respected.