By Maureen Wade – Chair, Birmingham UNISON Retired Members Section
It is not without irony that just as the government announced its new 10 year plan for the NHS that envisages more out-sourcing to the private sector, a major supplier of healthcare equipment has gone bust.
At the end of July, NRS Healthcare, which supplies around 40 per cent of equipment, such as wheelchairs and hoists, in England, announced it had run out of money.
NRS Healthcare supplies the NHS and 40 local authorities with the vital equipment needed for people discharged from hospital so they can return to their own homes.
Several local authorities wrote to the government warning of the impending crisis, saying the collapse of NRS would have “a devastating impact” and even a “risk to life” [BBC, 30 July].
Scrambling around
They called on the government to give NRS an emergency loan to keep it going, while alternative suppliers were sourced. No loan was forthcoming from the government, and NRS Healthcare went into liquidation on 1 August. Local authorities up and down the country have been frantically scrambling around to find alternative suppliers ever since, not to mention the NHS itself.
So there will be even further delays to hospital discharges. Already, there is a crisis in the availability of residential places; now even the more able will not be able to return to their homes because the appropriate equipment is not available.
In the past, home care equipment provision was in-house and we had whole store rooms stocked with supplies. But with privatisation came the ‘just in time’ production mentality to maximise profits for private companies cashing in on our health needs, rather than a long term plan of supply.
As ever, a short term private sector ‘solution’ to help politicians deliver tax cuts on the election stump has collapsed and ended in tears. The provision of healthcare equipment must be brought back into public ownership as an integral part of a publicly owned NHS.
[Featured photo of wheelchair user – © fizkes / Shutterstock.com]
