STAFF at Whiston and St Helens hospitals have written their Christmas list and are asking Santa if he can find and return their missing equipment.

In 2018 both hospitals issued more than 2,000 items of NHS equipment including crutches, walking frames and syringe drivers to patients at a cost of more than £20,000, but by the end of the year more than a third of them had not been returned.

Sue Redfern, director of Nursing, said: “We understand that some patients need to keep hold of NHS equipment over a long period, but we really need to replace our missing equipment or we’ll have to spend even more money to buy these items again.

"The equipment we are keen to recover ranges from syringe drivers, which cost £1,200 each, to walking frames, which cost £15 each.”

The staff tell us they’ve been good all year and so they are really hoping to get everything on their list by making it very easy for patients and their families to return these much needed items to Main Reception at Whiston and St Helens hospitals

The staff are hoping to receive the following items:

•Syringe Drivers

•Bone Stimulators

•Ambulatory ECG Monitors

•Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitors

•Cardio Memos

•Walking Frames

•Crutches

If you are unable to drop equipment off at the hospitals you can email equipmentreturn@sthk.nhs.uk to arrange for a member of staff to come and collect it from you.

No questions will be asked of any person returning equipment we’ll just say a big thank you (and Merry Christmas!)