Portsmouth NHS trust launches walking aid return scheme with drop off points at QA Hospital

Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust (PHU) are encouraging people to give back equipment such as crutches, frames and walking sticks, that they no longer need. Drop off points have been placed in Queen Alexandra Hospital main entrance, fracture clinic, and entrance to the discharge lounge.

People returning items can park for free for up to 20 minutes in the main or north multi-storey car parks. PHU are encouraging people to wipe the walking aids down before returning them. Once returned the items will be checked, cleaned, and repaired (if needed) before they are re-issued.

According to PHU if two out of every five walking aids were returned it would save the trust up £46,000 per year, and by reusing a refurbished walking aid it would reduce carbon emissions by 98 per cent compared to using a new one.

Kerry Herriott-Brown, therapy clinical lead for Orthopaedics, Surgery and Cancer Care, said, “It’s great that we can launch this scheme in Portsmouth and help re-use equipment by getting it to people who need it. As a Trust and a therapies team, we want to be more sustainable and if an item can be reused rather than ending up in landfill, then we have gone some way to achieving that.”

Trevor Mose, head of sustainability at PHU, said, “This latest initiative is one of the ways we are helping reduce our impact on the environment and reiterate our commitment to helping the NHS become the first net-zero carbon healthcare system. In 2022, we published PHU’s first Green Plan setting out the work we are doing to rise to this challenge and we hope our communities will continue to support us in achieving this.”

Any new walking aids that are handed out by PHU will now have a sticker on them informing the patient of where it can be dropped off once it is not of use. Walking aids found to unsafe will be taken out of circulation and recycled through the hospitals waste management system.