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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think that it is shameful dump all this brand-new NHS equipment?

42 replies

LaBelleDameSansPatience · 09/02/2015 19:36

My mother is to go into a care home, after a month in hospital and a failed discharge. She spent all of 2 days at home before being re-admitted. For the failed return home she was supplied with:
a commode chair
two walking frames
two toilet frames
a perching stool
Since she will not now be needing them, I asked how I would return them. Only one toilet frame has ever been used; the other even still has the plastic on the legs.
I was told that there is no collection scheme and that I should sell them if I could, if not, take them to the tip.
I really wish I could do some good with the equipment; send it back, send it to the third world for people who will never get such equipment ... Apparently there is no way of doing this.
Also, we have a very small house, and we keep falling over this mountain of stuff.

OP posts:
VivaLeBeaver · 09/02/2015 19:37

That's bad. After my dad died they came and got stuff like that.

ginmakesitallok · 09/02/2015 19:38

That is appalling! All equipment here is picked up, cleaned/ refurbished and reused.

VivaLeBeaver · 09/02/2015 19:38

Might the care home want them?

ginmakesitallok · 09/02/2015 19:38

Who told you to dump them?

Mrsstarlord · 09/02/2015 19:39

This is very unusual, there is usually a service which collects and cleans this equipment ready for redistribution. I would contact your local equipment and adaptations service or community OT service

ruddynorah · 09/02/2015 19:39

Try Age UK.

OhFlippityBolax · 09/02/2015 19:40

Give them to the red cross.

Her walking frames (or one of them!) can go with her to the home.

Shame your county don't do returns, ours do but then they go into a dump

mrscumberbatch · 09/02/2015 19:40

I have 3 sets of crutches. (Didn't know I'd end up on crutches each time I went in) and the hospital refuses to have them back as they have no recycling facility.

Huge waste.

skylark2 · 09/02/2015 19:41

Will she not need them in the care home?

If not, you could ebay them - a friend got some similar equipment for her disabled adult DD from ebay, she didn't qualify for it on the NHS and new prices are sky high. So it did good.

But I agree with you - the NHS is struggling and then there's casual waste like that.

UniS · 09/02/2015 19:41

Phone Age UK or Red Cross Locally. They may have a link to a reuse service.
If your in Devon, try "Terrys Zimmers" in Okehampton , a small shop that sell secondhand mobility equipment.

OhFlippityBolax · 09/02/2015 19:41

Wtf?! Every hospital I've been screams out for crutches to be returned either to physio or a&e

fridayfreedom · 09/02/2015 19:41

In Hampshire this kind of equipment has a phone number on and you ring up to arrange a collection.
It may be that the person you spoke to isn't giving you the right info.
The equip is loaned to people so is not for people to sell.
Walking frames are often not part of this return system.
Try and ring the local Ccupational Therapy service at the local adult services or the county council

FishWithABicycle · 09/02/2015 19:42

Donate to the red cross.

GoofyIsACow · 09/02/2015 19:44

Our hospital also does this, we had walking frames, wheely tables and those perching stools galore (four elderly relatives died in mine and Dh's family in a few years)
There used to be a facility in the nearest town, they would come and collect or you could drop them off, it isn't there now and so the advice is the same as you have been given, sell them or dump them.
It is terrible.

FightOrFlight · 09/02/2015 19:44

The toilet seat won't be taken back but everything else would be in our area.

Floundering · 09/02/2015 19:45

Or the Red Cross they'd be grateful for it & then write a snotty letter to the Head of OT or person in charge of finances for the health trust in your area.

Woodenheart · 09/02/2015 19:45

Who told you there is no collection service?

Is there a phone number on the equipment? They should have issued a receipt type form with the equipment and that should have a phone number on.
Its usually the council loan stores that it comes from,

Was it from an O.T, if so ring the O.T Dept at your local hospital, they should help.

OhFlippityBolax · 09/02/2015 19:46

Where in the uk are you OP? One of us will be from there and can tell you where to return it to Grin

PiperIsTerrysChoclateOrange · 09/02/2015 19:49

I don't understand as an nhs worker why they can't be returned then cleaned as a exipment in barrier rooms.

The hospital I work at has a summer decant system where a ward is closed and is hpv. These exipment could be done at the same time.

Toomanyexams · 09/02/2015 19:52

Something similar happened with some equipment that my infant DC2 needed for only a short while. They did not want it back. There was no way to give it back. Even the stuff never used - still in original packaging!

I was so distraught.

I gave it to my mum in America who took it took a paediatric clinic, where the nurse quickly took the gear, and said she knew a family struggling in desperate need of it. Better than throwing it away, but crazy. UK tax payers gave medical equipment to poor Americans. Not the intention, but better than land fill.

MoanCollins · 09/02/2015 19:53

Can't see why they won't take the walking frames back but I can understand them having a feeling that people may not want second hand goods related to continence issues.

They've probably done the maths on this. If they factor in the staff time to collect, petrol to collect them, they would need to be sterilised, repackaged, checked all the parts are there and functioning and put onto some sort of inventory and it probably works out more expensive than just buying new ones.

Also when they go out as new any problems would be the manufacturers responsibility, the NHS would have very limited legal liability for any problems. If they went out, were used, came back in and went out again you would be looking at much more responsibility on the part of the NHS if, for example, a walking frame was sent back with a small part damaged which wasn't picked up on and it failed for the new owner who as a result fell and died. The manufacturer would rightly say it wasn't their fault, and it would become a million pound problem for the NHS.

OverAndAbove · 09/02/2015 19:54

Is it because the cost of getting them brought back and cleaned up makes it unviable? I would understand that because of mileage and staff time etc

OverAndAbove · 09/02/2015 19:55

Cross posts!

MoanCollins · 09/02/2015 19:57

Piper where would you store them the rest of the year? Given these are goods related to continence the risk of contamination is high so it would need to be a large area well away from patients. Which the NHS doesn't have a ready supply of so you're looking at paying for storage which is another expense. I don't think it would be good practice to store dirty items for a year to clean either.

PiperIsTerrysChoclateOrange · 09/02/2015 20:08

www.nhsforthvalley.com/__documents/qi/ce_guideline_infectioncontrol/06-decontamination-of-medical-devices.pdf

This is the policy used in 'my' hospital.

It doesn't even need to be hpv this is something that we do to prevent infection rather than decontaminate.