Community Equipment Services

Healthwatch Central Bedfordshire was asked to undertake an independent review of the two existing community equipment services in Bedfordshire by the local council to inform a new combined service. They undertook a survey between 12 November 2022 and 6 January 2023, reaching 32 people.

The vast majority of respondents to the survey, receiving equipment from Millbrook, were very satisfied with their experience (87%). The equipment usually arrived on time, the service was helpful and friendly, the technicians explained how to use the equipment, and customers said they were treated with dignity and respect. However, only half of the respondents who completed the survey said they found the equipment instructions easy to follow.

Just over half (62%) of respondents said they had been told the equipment needed to be returned when it was no longer needed, and the process for doing this.

Equipment users were given several options of how they would like the equipment provider to communicate with them and were asked to tick all their preferred options. ‘E-mail’ was the most popular at 68%, followed by ‘telephone’ (55%), ‘mobile text’ (48%), with ‘letter’ being the least preferable at 23%.

When asked what was a suitable time for equipment to be repaired if it broke down, interestingly, the majority of respondents (45%) said it would depend on the type of equipment. Only a quarter of respondents (25%) said ‘next day’, with 16% who thought it should be ‘within a week’ and a very small percentage (9%) who thought it should be the ‘same day’.