to think the n.h.s is going to ruin for things like this

[diabeticsanon]

dm was in hospital and when she left was transported back with two hospital blankets. i took them back to the ward a week later and one auxillary said 'oh, give it to the nurse over there, but you could have kept them or thrown them away'. the other nurse looked at me as if i'd given him a bag of dog shit and put them on the side without a word of thanks .
mum also has put out two perfectly good walking frames [without my knowledge] for council bulk collection. her excuse ? wouldn't give me one.
so much money and resources are drained from the n.h.s.every day it's stupid things like this that aren't helping anyone.

[bilbodog]

I think the problem with this is that they would have to clean things to such a high standard once they have left the hospital that they cant afford to and it is cheaper and simpler to bin things now. They wouldnt take back my crutches after a knee operation either - im keeping them for when i get old 🤣

[BooksAreMyOnlyFriends]

Such a waste of money but without staff to sort through the stuff I guess it just becomes another burden on them.

[FraggleRocking]

Not saying that you didn’t treat them well but the hospital has no idea if they are safe anymore. If they have even the slightest damage something could end up going terribly wrong down the line. Plus there is obviously the hygiene issue.
The staff should’ve been more polite though. That’s just manners.

[Alsohuman]

They wouldn’t take the commode we had back either, despite if being immaculate. Infection control I guess.

[Mosaic123]

They should have a label saying what to do with them afterwards.

[Thesearmsofmine]

My ds was sent home with an NHS blanket and they said not to worry about bringing it back in. It does seem wasteful.

[SoupDragon]

The One Show had a segment about this wastage. There are some locations with schemes to collect things like commodes/crutches/frames etc and get them back into use though.

[Dungeondragon15]

I don't really get how not taking back the blankets you have used is "wasteful". If they took returns they would have to be cleaned and perhaps disinfected and there is a cost to this which could be as much as the blanket is worth. If you keep them you can use them so they are only wasted if you don't do that i.e. you have wasted them not the NHS.
As for walking frames etc, I think that many NHS trusts to recycle them if not all. They certainly do in my area. Did your mum even check? If not again, it is not the NHS that is wasting resources!

[SoupDragon]

I don't really get how not taking back the blankets you have used is "wasteful". If they took returns they would have to be cleaned and perhaps disinfected and there is a cost to this which could be as much as the blanket is worth.

What do you think they usually do with bedding?

[SpuriouserAndSpuriouser]

You’re being far too simplistic. The NHS is in crisis because it’s chronically underfunded. It needs millions more pounds investing in it a year, not whatever could be saved by getting a few blankets or walking frames back (minus the cost of implementing a scheme to facilitate this).

[AlexaAmbidextra]

If they took returns they would have to be cleaned and perhaps disinfected

Yes, just like they do with all the bedding that is used every day in the hospital.

[DaveCoachesgavemetheclap]

When my mum was in hospital recently, she was given a pair of non slip socks every day, even though she was immobile for the first week and needed to use a bed pan etc She was horrified that the HCA would put a new pair on everybody and just throw the old pairs in the bin after one day's wear. Apart from the expense, think of the landfill!

[Thesearmsofmine]

Dungeondragon15 same as they would be if they weren’t sent home in the first place!

I don’t think sending blankets back would save the nhs I just think it is really wasteful, they will have to replace every blanket sent home,’any of those blankets will just end up in landfill somewhere.

[LaFreaka]

I had to beg for a pair of crutches when I broke my toe - they complained that people never returned them.

[cdtaylornats]

When my mother's next door neighbour died the council came and collected all of the things Social Services had supplied.

[downcasteyes]

spuriouser is right. The problem is (deliberate) underfunding, and a false narrative that the problem is inefficiencies rather than the astronomical costs that come with an ageing population with increasingly complex health and social care needs.

Yes, there are always minor ways you can save money in an organisation. No, they are not the major problem, which is that we all need to pay more in taxes for a first class health system.

[GregoryPeckingDuck]

I think that these things are very minor in comparison to the number of people taking advantage and using the nhs for unnecessary procedures (like mastectomies for transmem or colds in A&E) or using the NHS when they could easily afford private treatment. This is exacerbated by NHS policies prevent private referrals/refusing to use results from private tests/scans.

[DaveCoachesgavemetheclap]

When my DH broke his leg, I was told he could keep the crutches as they didn't reuse them, yet when in A&E with my mum before she was admitted, one of the nurses gave a bloke a crutch to use but told him to bring it back when he'd finished. This was in the same hospital. I imagine that if someone were given a used crutch and it broke, they could sue the hospital for injuries caused.

[AnyOldPrion]

Not just the NHS. These kinds of wasteful attitudes are one of the reasons our planet is subject to global warming.

My parents’ generation rarely threw anything away. You can’t alleviate all risk, but throwing perfectly good equipment away is appalling. The UK now has such a blame culture that many perfectly good and sensible pathways are now pushed aside as potentially too costly.

[OhTheRoses]

My local hospital has notices up asking for things to be returned.

Don't understand the mentality upthread though when in the next breath inpatients may be told they can't have another pillow due to lack of resources though.

What gets my goat is the money spent on endless reviews that lead nowhere.

[Dungeondragon15]

Yes, just like they do with all the bedding that is used every day in the hospital.

The bedding that they used every day in the hospital would be designed to be disinfected without disintegrating. I'm not sure that the bedding used to transport the patients to the hospital in an ambulance would be the same. The latter would probably be warmer and not necessarily made of the same material.

[orangetreesinspring]

As a hospital worker I would imagine the issue is that the management of a hospital would in theory like all the equipment back again but there is no one in the hospital who's actual job it is to accept returned equipment and ensure it goes back into service.

So equipment is given to random staff members who have no clue what to do!

Our reception is peopled by volunteers who would have even less idea what to do with equipment.

Although, I find ward staff not wanting blankets to be really odd, we would just put it straight in the washing hold and be very grateful!

As part of the big nhs picture, it's not that we are wasteful in this instance, it's that we are so understaffed we can't really manage the issue of returned equipment. There are too many other jobs to be done with too few staff.

[Toddlerteaplease]

I'd be quite impressed with your honesty if you bought a blanket back. But I'd really wonder why you bothered!

[Dungeondragon15]

I don’t think sending blankets back would save the nhs I just think it is really wasteful, they will have to replace every blanket sent home,’any of those blankets will just end up in landfill somewhere.

Wouldn't you keep them and reuse them yourself though? I would. It seems a bit bizarre that you are blaming the NHS for being wastful when you would through a perfectly good blanket in the bin.