I heard on the news this morning that the NHS are having an ' amnesty' on the return of crutches, walking sticks etc. because apparently they have just realised that it is costing millions annually to supply them. It's not so long ago that there was a tv programme about this very subject, showing skips full of equipment that the private companies supplying them had disposed of.
When I had my hip replacement two years ago, I was only too pleased to return my walking sticks on my final hospital visit - I couldn't wait to see the back of them! But I was told to keep them as they didn't have the equipment to clean them, so always provided new to each patient. When I showed suprise at this and I said I didn't want them, the receptionist suggested I took them to landfill! I wasn't going to do that, so I accidently 'forgot' to pick them up after my appointment.
Now it seems they do have the facilities to clean them - how much money has been wasted before some bright spark decided to call an 'amnesty' - which suggests it is the patients fault that equipment has not been returned? I'm sure this is the case with things like wheelchairs, but even so, I think the blame lies with NHS managers, not the patients if they suddenly find they are so short of money. To call it an amnesty is insulting.
To think that London, or anywhere else for that matter, does not belong to any one demographic
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