NHS waste

[marriedinwhite]

All we seem to hear about is the cost and expense of the NHS. I have just opened four letters, four envelopes, 4 x 31p, inviting each of us for a flu jab. Whilst I welcome the invitation for a flu jab, isn't it a big daft, when resources are a bit stretched for the surgery not to put at least the children's (17 and 14) letters into mine or DH's envelope. Seems rather like waste and spending for the sake of waste and this from a surgery that refuses to post a referral letter because of the cost of stamps

Our local Council does this. We have letters about our planning objections addressed to Mrs RuleBritannia, Mrs RBritannia, and the same sort of thing used to come for my late husband. Why can't they put two and two together?

You're right. I find the NHS seems to squander when they get extra funding for a particular project or patient group but the they're stingy with everything else if it comes out of core funds. Not great!

Oh I thought this might be about clinical waste.

I have a sharps box that I 'inherited' when my grandma died 20 months ago. I have twice arranged for it to be collected and twice the collection people have not collected it.

Unfortunately, I have to leave it at the end of my driveway first thing and it is collected sometime in the morning, but not before half the children at DD's school have walked past my house and the sharps box. Because I've been out at work, it's been left there all day. I'm reluctant to try it again.

There's no where at the hospital I can take it to, the GP surgery won't take it and when I checked at the adjoining pharmacy they said their poster saying "bring your clinical waste here" was out of date and they no longer took it!

The worst thing is, not only does it look bad, but it isn't sealed properly for some reason. It's quite a small box and I've tried to close the top but it just won't close securely.

So that's it. 20 month old partially opened sharps box is sitting behind a photo frame on by book case well out of everyone's reach and most people's view. And will be there for my grandchildren to inherit at this rate!

well I was told it would be collected sometime in the morning. Clearly it wasn't because it was waiting for me in the evening. Twice.

FolkGirl you can leave sharps in at our local Boots store which has a needle swap programme.

Really?!!

I'll enquire. See I knew it would be worth posting! I should have done it sooner. Thanks for that. x

I had a letter from the hospital telling me about an appointment, then a 2nd telling me it was cancelled, and a new one would be made, and then a 3rd giving me the new appointment time, all posted on the same day!

Sorry, agree thus us a waste, but actually yabu .

Ok maybe you don't see flu jabs as a confidential matter, but they are. There is absolutely no way your 17 yr olds letter could go in with yours, the 14 yr old probably could but even that could be dodgy in some circumstances.

Gps are sending out hundreds or letters-invites for thus and that etc. imagine the potential for errors if they tried to say, ok fly letters can go it together, but what about the fact we are obliged to ask all teenagers about smoking,or advisethen we offer free chlamydia screening.....and i its ok to send letters to under 16s together but not over 16s etc etc

Why exactly are flu jabs confidential. Why exactly should the offer of a flu jab to my dependent children be a secret?

What about my confidentiality when the idiot receptionist at my surgery yelled across a crowded waiting room "Mrs M your smears overdue as you're here do you want to make an appointment for one". Confidentiality and respect my backside.

Give me one good reason why they can't put a referral letter (private) in the post to me if they can't put my children's flu jab letters in one envelope with mine. Also, I want treatment for my family when it needs it, not advice about smoking which is entirely legal in the UK.

Every letter sent is confidential.

Though I suppose at the very least they could send separate ones to you and your DH and include the kids on both of them.

Over 16's have the right to their mail being sent to themself also the rights of the child means under 16's afford the same right to decide their medical treatment like it or not

marriedinwhite Children under 16 can have capacity [understanding] to decide about their medical treatment, but it depends on the child and the treatment (the average 13 year old might have the capacity to consent to having an ingrowing toenail treated, but not an appendicectomy). It would be impossible for practices to know whether each under-16 year old on its list has capacity to decide about a flu jab and therefore whether to send the letter to the child or the parent.

The potential savings in postage would be greatly outweighed by the administrative costs of trying to combine letters to household members and of dealing with the complaints of people who felt their confidentiality had been breached.

I'd guess the whole process is a simple mail merge. It's probably more cost effective to send the letters separately than to have to pay somebody to go through thousands of letters to try and find and match up the few that could be sent in the same envelope.

Our school send countless letters by post that could be given to the child to bring home.

This week I think I have had 4, 3 of which arrived on one day. I am sure DS2 could have brought them home with him, like we did in the old days!

I have missed 3 hospital appointments because they keep sending the letters to a house I lived in 6 years ago. Every time I speak to anyone they can't redo the appointment on the phone, it has to go back through the gp. I have told my correct address to everyone I have spoken to. That is 3 appointments other people could have had, it's ridiculous.

I thought it would be about waste disposal since they're about to change our waste system to save money!

Yanbu to say that the NHS is wasteful, at times I find it shocking! Sometimes it's just ridiculous. I received a letter dated 29 March. Post mark 16th April. I received it 18th April about 3pm. My appointment was for 10.30am 18th April! Worst of all, I got automatically discharged from the service and a DNA against my name. I have put a complaint in to get the DNA removed and go point out why it was a waste of NHS resources.

I had a letter saying I would get a letter with an appointment in the next 10ish weeks.

Stupid thing is, they're going to send exactly the same letter again as its a referral for twins and this letter was for one of them only. And not even the one who needs the sodding referral.

It's not wasteful, the letters will be being automatically printed out and then bunged in envelopes which is really quick.

To either manually sort the letters out so that ones being posted to the same address are in the same envelope would cost staff time which would be far in excess of the 17p the letters cost considering they will probably be paid at least £6ph and it would take them at least 5 minutes if not longer, especially if they had to check if the children were in fact yours. Doing this for every family they were sent out to would take bloody ages and cost a fortune.

And getting a computer program which would do that would be even more expensive.

What you are suggesting would in fact be a bigger waste of staff time and therefore funds so would be much more wasteful.

My DH was sent a letter telling him to call to make an appointment. He called and they said they had no appointments and for him to call back a week later. They then sent a letter apologizing for not having an appointment and saying they would send another letter when appointments were available. This repeated a few times.

He eventually started to just call back weekly and finally got one. It's for a vasectomy, he's been trying to get one since January and he's finally got the appointment for the procedure...in November. It's been a very long and odd process.