A widow has blasted the NHS after health bosses told her to dump hundreds of pounds worth of leftover medical equipment at the TIP following her partner’s death.
Marion Slater, 69, was gobsmacked when the NHS refused to take away the expensive medical devices – telling her they were now her responsibility.
The grieving pensioner says she phoned her local pharmacy about the leftover equipment after her partner David Jefferies lost his battle with cancer last week.
But she was stunned when they advised her to take the kit – including a battery-powered morphine driver, a drip stand, batteries and dozens of unopened syringes and needles – to her local tip.
Marion, of Tamworth, Staffs., is now calling on medical chiefs to be more careful not to waste equipment that could be used to help save others.
She fumed: “It just beggars belief.
“I was born in 1948, the same year the NHS was founded, it is all I have ever known, so to see so much go to waste made me feel really annoyed, to be honest.
“After David’s death, I had all this equipment left over, so thinking the NHS would need it back, I called the Community Intervention Team.
“They told me to contact the pharmacy about it, but when I spoke to them, there were not interested and told me to take it all to the tip.
“This, in my opinion was such a waste.
“I cannot fault the care they gave to my partner, they were absolutely fantastic in everything they did for him.
“What I can’t understand though is why they are wasting so much equipment which could be used to save lives – and I cannot imagine it is cheap.
“The NHS is always in crisis, there is always more money needed for it, but if there are ten people like me in Tamworth, and if this is repeated across the country, the amount of money that is being wasted would be in the thousands.
“The doctors will be able to get rid of the needles and they have already taken any leftover morphine.
“They have now said they will be taking the rest of it away which is good news.
“I am still grieving though, all this was the last thing I needed.”
Marion was left to dispose of up to 50 needles, syringes, a battery-powered morphine syringe driver, saline drips, a pack of Duracell batteries, a drip stand and a multitude of other medical equipment and documentation totalling hundreds of pounds.
After contacting the Community Intervention Team of Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Partnership NHS Trust, they told her to take the equipment to the pharmacy who then advised her to dispose of the equipment herself.
But NHS chiefs have since made a U-turn after being contacted by the media and said they will now collect the equipment from Marion’s home.
A spokesman from the trust said: “We are working closely with the family to ensure that any clinical equipment is taken away by the clinical team who have been providing support to the family.
“A visit to the family home has been arranged and any additional support required from staff will be provided during this visit.”
