False teeth, jewellery and cash: Shropshire's hospital trust spends more than £25,000 replacing lost patient items
The trust which controls Shropshire’s two main hospitals has spent more than £25,000 replacing lost patient items – including false teeth.
The bill for replacing lost patient belongings topped £25,000 for Shropshire health chiefs over the last three years.
The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust has spent thousands of pounds reimbursing people for lost personal items including jewellery, clothing, cash, hearing aids, glasses and false teeth.
Among the most expensive items replaced during the three-year period included paying out £8,035 for a patient’s lost jewellery and £2,250 for a patient's lost bracelet.
The item which was replaced the most was patient’s lost dentures which the trust paid out more than £6,000 for over the past three years.
Between April 2014 and May 2015, SaTH paid out a total of £ 17,867 for 16 items.
This included £1,950 for a patient’s lost dentures and £90 for missing cash.
Between May 2015 and March 2016, SaTH paid out a total of £ 2,754 for 17 items.
This included paying £563 towards the replacement of patient's dentures and £248 towards the replacement of patient's towel, dentures and watch
And between April 2016 and March 2017, SaTH paid out a total of £5,198 for 10 items.
These included paying £640 towards the replacement of a patient's cash when transferred from a community hospital and paying £2,250 towards the replacement of a patient's lost bracelet.
The items and the payments have been made public in a Freedom of Information request to SaTH.
Hospital bosses said when asked to look after patient's belongings, they take it very seriously.
But they reminded patients not to bring valuables with them to hospital.
Deirdre Fowler, director of nursing, midwifery and quality at SaTH, said: “We encourage patients to, wherever possible, have items of value or belongings that they do not need taken home while they are with us in hospital.
“When we are asked to look after patients’ belongings, we take that responsibility very seriously. Items placed in our care are carefully documented in line with our Patient Property Policy.
“On occasions that items do go missing, we ensure each of these cases is fully investigated. Our first priority is to try to locate and return the missing item to its owner but, unfortunately, despite our best efforts to locate them, this does not always prove possible.”
