Council avoids vital equipment shortages after successful appeal but still needs beds & mattresses
After calling for people to return unneeded community equipment amid concerns of potential shortages, Devon County Council has reported receiving hundreds of donated commodes, walking frames and shower stools.
On the 16th April, Devon County Council warned that stocks were running low for a range of community equipment and urged the public to return products.
Millbrook Healthcare is the provider commissioned by Devon County Council to provide community equipment and has been collecting the donated items from households across the county to be re-used after testing and cleaning.
Devon County Council’s Household Waste Recycling Centres, where members of the public often leave unwanted items of equipment, have also helped.
Its contractor Suez Recycling and Recovery UK collected more than 250 pieces of community equipment left at recycling centres across Devon to deliver it to Millbrook’s Exeter depot.
According to Devon County Council, Millbrook has taken more than 600 calls so far from members of the public offering a wide range of community equipment they no longer need.
Councillor Andrew Leadbetter, Devon County Council’s Cabinet Member with responsibility for adult social care and health, said: “Some of the equipment that the Millbrook team has so far collected has already been checked, tested, decontaminated and is back out in the community helping other people to remain as independent as possible at home.
“The response to the appeal has been amazing! We think that we’ve now received more than 450 pieces of equipment so far and the figure is rising.
“I’d like to thank everyone who has phoned with offers of equipment they no longer need.”
Following the successful return of numerous pieces of equipment, the council has noted larger items of community equipment including profiling beds, pressure-relieving mattresses mobile hoists and patient turners, are still highly sought after.
The local Devon appeal comes as a wider, national campaign led by the British Health Trades Association’s Community Equipment Services Provider working group recently launched, stressing the need for equipment to ensure people can be discharged from hospitals and resources can be freed.
