You asked:

I would be grateful if I could find out how many walking sticks, zimmer frames and wheelchairs etc are handed out to patients over a month or a year and how many are returned to the trust. Does the trust have an arrangement with any charities to sell discarded or broken mobility aids

We answered:

We are unable to provide exact figures  as many different departments may give out walking aids.  However on average we purchase 200 walking sticks a month to give to patients and we do not collect them back from patients. Most are single use and  once crutches or frames have been used for several weeks they would need reconditioning to loan out again and we don’t have facilities to do that.   We don’t send anything to charities.  We do not supply wheelchairs and we have a small number for loan and they are all returned when the person is issued with their own chair from the regional centre. We lend about 4 a month.