Nhs wasting moneyv

[passionflower50]

My husband has farrowwrap leg stocking and wrap for ulcers on his legs .he has large size so last lot came and they sent small .dont fit and can't be sent back so district nurse ordered some more in correct size .they have sent one lot large 2 lots small as in there wisdom they thought they would try small even though they know they don't fit these wraps cost 148 pounds a time what a waste of money .

Ask the DN to take them. If they are sealed, they might be able to use them for someone else.

I've seen the same thing happen with incontinence products and other dressings. There's lots of money wasted across all departments.

Ask the DN to refer your husband to the Tissue Viability service. TV nurses are experts and have the skills and contacts to prevent such wastage. Not knocking DNs here, but leg ulcers are painful and debilitating and go last for years if not managed appropriately. Get the experts in!

these wraps cost 148 pounds a time what a waste of money
Maybe retail price but quite possibly costing the NHS more. Why can’t they be sent back?

Yes I’m always shocked at the overprescribing that goes on.
We visited in-laws recently and I was trying to clear up. I got rid of 84 out of date items none of which had been opened.
Fil just ticks all the medication every time he puts in a request and no one has ever questioned it.

The NHS is not unique, and human errors does not mean that it is wasting money left right and centre.

They are not allowed to take them to another patient x

FIL just ticks all the medication every time he puts in a request and no one has ever questioned it

See I don’t do this, I only request medication that is required (DH on ten meds a day after brain tumour, some used on an ad hoc basis so not always the same amount needed, or we need to reorder those but not the others), however every single time I go to collect the prescription, the whole lot has been sent through to the pharmacy. I have asked the prescribing team to check the actual request, I have ‘complained’ to the practice manager, and called the receptionist many times. Apparently, though we can request repeat prescriptions by the app or email, they can’t make any change to them from the original 🤷‍♀️ without the Dr seeing the patient. I’ve given up trying to sort it out tbh.

Hes been seen by tissue viability had ulcers over 2 years and district nurse dressing them every week till farrow wrapswere prescri ed I now dress them and nurse comes once a month to check x

Sounds like you could offer them on local Facebook freebies. Don't have to go to waste.

They ate not allowed to take them anywhere else once they have left the chemist

If you work in hospitals and see what damage is caused by the negligence by the staff, and that's before you get to the patients damaging things.

Yes the NHS needs more money, but the management of current money they have is atrocious and inefficient.

@passionflower50

They ate not allowed to take them anywhere else once they have left the chemist

Then that’s what needs changing. It really wouldn’t be rocket science.

This is normal practise across the country not to reissue the item to someone else .if they aren't using them here why not send them to a third world country where they struggle for supplies x

Yes the NHS needs more money, but the management of current money they have is atrocious and inefficient

This 100%
I say this everytime people say the NHS needs more funding.
I also say this on every single occasion I have to have anything to do with a hospital appointment (in patient or out / for me or for any of my extended family). Without fail, every individual I have every met at hospitals has been lovely, and I know the ridiculous hours and the ridiculous pressures some staff work under but the whole system is just ridiculously wasteful in so, so, so ,so many ways, that pouring more cash in isn't going to fix it at all.
It's like those questions you used to get in exam papers 'If water is entering the bath from the taps at a pressure of X litres per minute, but draining out through a hole at Y metres per minute, how long will it take to fill the bath? Even as a child I used to think 'why don't they fix the hole first?

Yes the NHS needs more money, but the management of current money they have is atrocious and inefficient

By whose measure? Your own narrow experience of the NHS? Millions of people pass through its doors.

Plenty of previous studies have shown the nhs to be very efficient.

And ironically, the less money you give an organisation, the more inefficient it will become. The time and energy it takes to identify better way to do things actually requires investment. I’ve worked in an organisation which suffered annual budget cuts every year. People were exhausted trying to find new ways to cut a smaller cloth and it was no wonder they made mistakes because nothing ever stood still.

When my Nan passed away she had loads of sealed bandages and stoma supplies all
Brand new not opened
I took them to the local
Hospice who were very grateful as they operate as a
Charity

I took all her sealed up tablet to the chemists and they said they'd dispose of them!!!!

*By whose measure? Your own narrow experience of the NHS? Millions of people pass through its doors.

Plenty of previous studies have shown the nhs to be very efficient.*

If you loo at supply chains they are paying to much for products, staff damage things and don't care, middle management is overpaid, we have lazy doctors and nurses, but not so lazy when seeing private.

If you join a ulcer or lymphedema supourt group on Facebook lots of people would love to take them off your hands

YANBU

A few years ago my Aunt had a commode chair delivered by the NHS (she'd had a fall). For whatever reason, she ended up not needing it.

She rang and asked them if they'd come and pick it up, as it was still in its bubble wrap packaging, so it was clear it had never been used.

They said no because there was no-one to coordinate picking it up and they didn't have the space to store it anyway

She ended up giving it to a local Hospice I think.

Well said @Iggly

My OH has thousands of pounds of chemotherapy drugs in the cupboard. One particular tablet costs £300 each and he's got boxes of them! Trouble is that he's not in control. They're issued automatically by the haematologist every month. Each month he gets 21 of one tablet, but only takes 14, so that's 7 wasted each month. There's another chemo tablet which is in packs of 3 but he only takes 2, so that's one wasted every month. Whenever he tells the haematologist and asks for fewer to be issued, he just gets told "it's too much work" to change the prescription and that "we get the funding for the full amount, so it doesn't matter to us how many you use!". It's absolutely diabolical that they just don't care about the cost side of things.

"we get the funding for the full amount, so it doesn't matter to us how many you use!".

That's part of problem the NHS is biggest employer in Europe and many staff don't care.

People bang about NHS staff during covid, out of the 1.4 million most never saw a covid patient.

Honestly that makes me cross. 15 years or more ago lots of PCTs set up schemes where DN held a stock of tissue viability items, which they used to start treatment, find the correct product and then got the GP to prescribe or prescribed themselves. I suppose that went, when PCTs and prescribing advisors were scrapped. That's progress for you. Still, I got early retirement out of it

If he's had them for more than two years, ask the GP to refer him to a Vascular service for endovenous intervention - it treats the underlying cause rather than the stockings.