Starting an elbow crutch recycling scheme has led to Professional Lead Occupational Therapist Shirley Rashid, from Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT), being shortlisted for a national award.
Shirley is one of just four finalists in the Greener Allied Health Professions Award 2023. This recognises an AHP, team or individual who has delivered service improvements which reduce healthcare’s environmental impact. The awards are run by England’s Chief Allied Health Professions Officer Suzanne Rastrick.
Last year, Shirley was successful in a bid for funding from the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB) to buy a stock of 50 pairs of elbow crutches. Previously getting crutches for people in the community involved a lot of form filling and patients having to wait. Also, the crutches were non-returnable.
Thanks to Shirley’s work and a pilot scheme, elbow crutches are now readily available at KCHFT community hospitals and other sites. After use, a patient can take the crutches back to the hospital where they were given out and work is also underway to set up three equipment stores across the county where crutches and other equipment can be returned.
The recycling scheme came off the back of a quality improvement (QI) project which Shirley led, which was aimed to reduce patient waiting times for elbow crutches, as well as the time clinicians spent ordering them.
She said: “We were seeing people in the community who needed these, but ordering them individually took a lot of form filling and waiting time for patients.
“We did some work with the ICB and demonstrated there was a need to have these readily available in the community and to have a stock, so we could give them out straightaway.
“The problem was people could not return them. Physios give out a lot of equipment and I felt a responsibility around sustainability.
“With the recycling scheme, we’ve had good results. Patients get the crutches quicker and feel better that they can return them to the NHS.”
Shirley is working with our KCHFT’s Head of Sustainability Dan Wright and Physiotherapy Professional Lead Pilar Bustamante, to identify sites for containers for patients and those who use KCHFT services, to return equipment.
Shirley added: “We aim to increase the return rate of equipment prescribed by KCHFT, therefore increasing its responsible recycling and re-use.”
The award winner will be announced mid-October.