Amnesty for return of wheelchairs

MISSING ESSENTIALS: John Nieuwoudt, Lakes District Health Board security manager, is asking for the return of wheelchairs. PHOTO/BEN FRASER

People with wheelchairs lying around home, or walking frames or crutches they have borrowed from the Lakes District Health Board are being urged to return them, as the hospital faces an equipment shortage.

The health board has put out a plea for Rotorua residents to return any wheelchairs or other hospital equipment found in their homes and storage spaces, with a "no questions asked" approach if the items are returned to the front entrance of Rotorua Hospital.

The call for the return of the equipment was prompted by a shortage of wheelchairs at the hospital.

Missing wheelchairs is a recurring problem at the hospital, but a shortage of walking frames and crutches is adding to the pressures for staff wanting patients to have the right equipment to use in their homes following a hospital stay.

In the past three years, 17 wheelchairs have gone missing.

Security manager John Nieuwoudt said people used the wheelchairs to take their relatives to their cars when they were discharged from hospital and many did not return the wheelchairs.

"Depending on the type of wheelchair, the price can start at $1300 and rise to about $1900 per chair, so the hospital is unable to simply replace them when they go missing.

"We cannot afford to replace as many as we would like." Staff spent much time tracking down family members where equipment had been loaned and trying to retrieve the equipment and if all else failed, the matter could be referred to debt collectors.

Several years ago Lakes DHB began purchasing wheelchairs that cannot be collapsed and easily put into the boot of a car, but the wheelchairs continued to go missing.

Physiotherapy team leader Ann McKellar said walking frames and crutches were items that were in especially short supply.

Some patients could experience delays in being discharged from hospital, because of the lack of loan equipment items for patients to take with them to use at home, she said.