When my elderly father was about to be discharged from hospital with a terminal illness the physios organised for equipment to be delivered at home for him from Medequip, who have the council supply contract. Unfortunately:
-Someone had to wait in for the delivery for the best part of
the day (a four-hour-wait-in at home is possible - they charge more
for this)
- when it arrived the man refused to put the bed up because
apparently there wasn't enough space (triggering two physios to
leave the hospital ward to sort it out, only to find the space was
big enough after all)
- a second delivery (premium) needed to be booked
- equipment delivered and installed
- once the equipment was no longer required, it took over two weeks
for an available collection slot but they couldn't come when anyone
was in - they can't collect after 6pm (but they can drop off after
6pm if you pay them extra)
- they can't come before 11am because they don't want to
contaminate the van
- as (often grieving families) are treated as satellite storage
depots
- I don't know if they charge the NHS by purchase or rental -
either way it doesn't bear thinking about
- the physios are fed up with Medequip: slow to respond,
inflexible, unreliable and awkward but they are stuck with
them
- Scope (charity trying to recycle disability equipment) can't
accept anymore disability equipment because they have so much
donated already
-the commissioners of the service require the physios to order from
Medequip instead of other options like Scope
-Medequip can't be bothered to recycle properly because they don't
have to.
If you have been affected by these issues or agree that this matter should be looked into, please consider signing my petition. Thank you very much for your interest.
Yours faithfully
Helen Spiby-Vann
This ePetition ran from 16/11/2017 to 17/01/2018 and has now finished.
13 people signed this ePetition.