Is There Any Wonder The Nhs Is In £ Crisis With People Like These.

Crutches are another one. Given free, but can't be reused anymore. Wastage is probably the biggest public funding issue

 

What stupid reason has someone come up with that crutches can't be reused?

 

We were told by the nurse, if someone falls on a damaged crutch, the payout would be huge so they can't trust second hand crutches. The NHS wouldn't be found culpable if a new crutch broke as it would be the manufacturer

 

Our orthopaedics unit has a recycling box that you can put them in.
I'm not sure if they recycle them to be used again or if it's for scrap value, but at least they're not being thrown away.

 

I wonder if he’d informed them he wasn’t taking them and they should stop delivering? All of those returned will just be destroyed; they can’t be reused for fear they may have been tampered with - a bit like the crutches above

 

My wife works in admin for the NHS and I frequently hear horror stories of waste varying . Senior staff members "losing" brand new Iphones and getting a replacement within a day or two, long term use of a receptionist through an agency at agency costs rather than employing one directly, equipment disposed of rather than being reused , sold or even sent abroad to 3rd world countries as charity , a monthly brochure for her specific trust telling staff how wonderful everything is , nurses at a recently closed hospital being individually collected from home by taxi and taken to an alternative hospital to work rather than all of them being picked up and dropped off at a single location let alone consider an alternative like the bus .
More money is not always the answer for "Our NHS" as it is called these days.

 

That’s despicable but not surprising. Poor management IMO.

 

Many hospitals have tried to skimp on expense by re-using items instead of procuring new, or not checking and sterilising items thoroughly. The consequence is that infections like MRSA and C.difficile spread among patients, leading to great numbers of deaths.

It is that which is "despicable", not taking strict (but expensive) precautions against infection.

 

My wife and I were chatting to a medical practitioner earlier in the year who was explaining about council funding cuts to his area of practice. He said that he made an enquiry and sifted through all of the data on medical spending for the year prior. This particular year they spent £2 million on a drug and alcohol rehab program for those deemed untreatable (so outside of the normal treatment program). 12 people attended. Thats over £166k each. They all relapsed.

The "losing" iPhone thing came up a while ago too. Some IT manager was putting them through as damaged/lost and selling the new replacement ones online. He got a token fine of a couple of hundred pounds and a suspended term.

I think it was last year too, you also had a caretaker who created his own supplies firm. He would then get asked to change locks on doors and things. He would order these from the supplies firm he created, at way over the actual value.

I see the same in schools too, being conned into huge IT spend because nobody knows any better or nobody checks.

Basically, if this were private sector it simply wouldn't happen.

 

Ours are now in the loft awaiting their next use, so we'll effectively recycle them ourselves. I also see the local beggers reusing them a lot as part of their props so I suppose that's some good

 

You are of course correct with regard to infection control but to use the trust where my wife works as an example again, in the last 10 years 3 different trusts have taken over her office. Each time furniture has been thrown away, nurses uniforms have been disposed of and new ones brought in with the new trust initials embroidered on, stationery with the old trust name has been dumped, new photocopiers ordered etc etc.

 

I'm surprised they were sent automatically. Usually you have to confirm a repeat prescription with a monthly phone call selecting the items you need.