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.

See I don’t think the NHS is underfunded. I think it’s been managed terribly, not to mention all the fraud.

It’s a minor cost. The reason they don’t take back walking frames is they have no idea whether they have been damaged and weakened. They only have a certain working life. There are places collect them for charities overseas.

Plenty of wastage elsewhere in the NHS will ruin it before someone having a couple of extra blankets becomes a problem.

It's not true that we spend 3 x as much on healthcare now as in 2000!

fullfact.org/health/spending-english-nhs/

We're spending more on healthcare for many reasons - not least an ageing population. People are living longer, but not necessarily healthier, lives. The costs of care for older people with complex needs can be astronomical. Treatments have also become longer and more complicated and hence expensive than they were in the 1950s (thank goodness).

That, plus the legacy of PFIs, big pharma taking their cut etc. etc.

The NHS absolutely is under funded, that’s why it’s in crisis. It could be better managed but it’s desperately under resourced, both financially and in human resource terms. Where’s all the fraud, then? Some examples would be helpful when throwing that kind of allegation around.

@GregoryPecking duck

This is exacerbated by NHS policies prevent private referrals/refusing to use results from private tests/scans

there is no such policy - I'm a GP and I will look at private tests/scans that patients bring me, as long as they are from a reputable source and are in English. If not in English then I will happily look at them once the patient has arranged professional translation.

The fraud, Fraud Squad NHS. It’s on catch up.

My village have a scheme where they lend crutches, wheelchairs etc that people have donated to those that need for post operation or, like me, severe SPD during pregnancy.

I was given a full leg brace when I broke my knees, it must have cost a few pounds so its such a shame these things cant be reused.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6251751/amp/Fraud-costs-NHS-1-29bn-YEAR-report-reveals.html

Another. It’s not underfunded it’s wasteful and people are ripping it off.

I knew someone who bought a small community hospital to convert into a house, when she showed us around prior to the work starting there were rooms full of modern electric hospital beds with the air flow mattresses to stop pressure sores. The NHS had just shut the doors after the last patient had gone. We estimated the cost of the equipment left behind was £60,000. No one at the NHS wanted to know.

My small local hospital has just closed and I dread to think what might be locked away there.

It's not true that we spend 3 x as much on healthcare now as in 2000!

2.5 times then. It was £50bn in 2000 and £125bn in 2018. That's a huge increase even accounting for inflation and increasing population. But it's OK, as we have loads of fancy new hospitals with atriums!

The way to deal with NHS wastage (and I don't mean a couple of blankets) is proper reform but I can't see the UK accepting the need to privatise the NHS any time soon because people automatically assume this means an American model of healthcare and imagine people going without because they can't afford it, ignoring the excellent systems in Germany, France, The Netherlands etc. I have lived and worked in those countries as a low earner (minimum wage or less) and received great healthcare either completely free or at very low and affordable cost even on my meagre income.

This is exactly how the Tories want us to think - NHS shortages are the fault of the NHS, preferably 'managers'. All we need now is for someone to cry BRING BACK MATRON! - preferably a matron looking just like Hattie Jacques.

If this patient had arrived home shivering because they hadn't been covered up, we'd all be hearing about it.

There are no economies that can make up the budget shortfall that has been planned in by the government.

Oh so there must be huge amounts of fraud because some crap TV programme says so. I was hoping for some real evidence.

And the Daily Fail as well. Not buying it.

I see money wasted at eye watering levels all the time

NHS culture (waste, let’s look into it, meetings held, an inquiry, an inquiry into the inquiry and so it goes on no one is held accountable) and our reliance on the NHS (can it really cover all aspects of healthcare like it was promised when medicine has advanced beyond what was thought possible) without wanting to really pay they much more into our health system is the issue

The NHS needs to go and replaced by systems that work better like France has but we shall be paying considerably more

Having spent a lot of time in and outside the NHS I could tell you stories of waste to send your head spinning

In contrast, I literally had to beg for a towel to use after a shower when DS was in SCBU. Was made to feel like I was really taking the mickey. A bit of kindness and common sense at that time in my life would’ve been very much appreciated.

We all know about the stories of waste. There is appalling management in some parts of the NHS, most of it in the higher echelons. As soon as an NHS trust goes into special measures management consultants and turnaround experts are called in to throw good money after bad when the staff on the ground know exactly how money could be saved. But the fact remains that it simply hasn’t got enough money or staff.

As s

The One Show ran a huge report on this a few years ago. All about the waste of not reclaiming walking frames, sticks etc. But even with that publicity they couldn’t get hospitals to want them back. It is utter madness but there is no system in place, from what I recall, for logging what has gone out and getting it back.

When I needed so crutches after a private operation, the hospital billed my insurer for them. I will need another op in a few years, so have held onto them. Won’t be charged twice.

I think it must be different for hospitals than for community services. My physio has just given me a heled walking frame (they cost about £400) and said if it's not right for me she'll take it back for someone else.

The system needs to be set up to enable the return of items and whatever needs to happen to check them over, sanitise them and re-use them

This would surely save the NHS money and certainly help save the planet - we make too much, we waste too much, we need to start thinking differently

”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.”

The blankets used in the ambulances have to be properly washed too, @Dungeondragon15. I’m sure they are just as robust and washable as the blankets used on the wards.