Returning NHS equipment

When clearing out my parents place after they went into care I rang the hospital and they came and collected the equipment we'd had provided - 2 wheelchairs, the toilet frame, bath stool and a walking frame. I did struggle to get rid of the rise and fall bath seat we'd bought and ended up giving it to the BHF. I do wonder how much money is sitting in people's homes when this equipment is no longer needed.

Was told in hospital some of it is single use. Big waste of money. We collected a chair from local supplier and will return this along with other things borrowed.

All our disability aids were collected within a week of DH’s death, along with the raised loo seat, commode, grab rails raise door mats etc. (I persuaded them to leave the grab rail in the shower as I ind it useful when standing on one leg to wash my feet!)
They are steam cleaned before being reissued.
The organisation (issue and collection) was done by a company whose name I forget , but there was no question of leaving things languishing in the garage.

All our aids were collected except the raised toilet seats and walking frames , seems they are too much trouble to clean and check before reissuing .When I had my hip replaced I aquired a trolly from a cousin as it had been deemed not worthy of returning . I have crutches that no one would take back either , we found that daft

I’ve just found one of those pickup points near me as my daughter has various stuff her hospital doesn’t want back so thanks for that tip.

Apparently, you can hand in crutches and walking sticks to local libraries. Things have certainly changed there. I gather they now issue hearing aid batteries too.

I have a very useful kitchen trolley given to me after my knee replacement last year. I have no intention of parting with it. My shed does house frame, crutches etc but I am keeping them for my next admission.

The car picking me up was really small so we had mega problems fitting the frame in it so I do not intend repeating that performance.

My shed has been burgled twice- they will get a nasty shock this time- nothing of value.

We used to wipe down and check walking sticks , crutches and zimmer frames and re-issue them with new ferrules , but now due to health and safety it is not reccomended , in all my years I only once came accross an item i couldn't give to a new client but it seems metal crutches etc can suffer from "metal fatigue"

Jane10 our local libraries are about to start issuing free condoms! I'm not sure if you'll get one per book you borrow or if it applies to the children's section as well, or what.

I sent quite a lot back to our local one. Things I'd been lent (hip replacement) plus masses from step mothers garage when we did a clear out.

Took toilet seats, frames etc.

Only thing not interested in were the grabbers (my name for pickup aid). She had 14 ! I put those all on a local swap/buy facebook page. Free.

Mediquip are the local company handing out and collecting here. Many things are cleaned and reused and some are sent to developing countries so long as they are in useable condition.

My children had occasions to use crutches in their teens, legs in plaster, due to mad larking around on skateboards and lunatic moves on bikes at skateparks. We always returned these plastic crutches. However, my husband has a doctor friend who is part Pakistani, and he told us that these items sometimes don't get used again, complete madness However, he would organise consignments of NHS crutches that were to be disposed of to be sent to Pakistan.

It appears that the cost of the 'deep cleansing' required for this sort of equipment works out a higher cost than just getting new. However, I found out that our nearest Red Cross takes all these and they have a twice weekly collection in one of the car parks of our nearest hospital.