Community equipment service update

NRS Healthcare, a major supplier of healthcare equipment to people who are being discharged from hospital or need support in their own homes, will no longer be providing this service

Torbay is one of around 40 councils across England and Northern Ireland that is impacted by the closure of NRS Healthcare.

NRS provides our Community Equipment Service, which provides equipment for a prescribed, clinical need to support a person (both adults and children) in their own home such as beds, mattresses and mobility aids.

Equipment may be provided to support someone with a short-term need while they recover from illness or longer-term permanent ill health.

Equipment is requested by clinical colleagues, mainly in Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust (TSDFT) based on the needs of the individual on assessment.

NRS also provides a Technology Enabled Care (TEC) Service for residents of Torbay, which is contracted through TSDFT. This service provides TEC enabled solutions, such as call alarms and smart technology, to allow people to live safely in their own homes.

Millbrook Healthcare is providing an emergency interim service. It will essentially be a limited service.

Millbrook will provide key items and will build on the list of equipment over the coming weeks.

During this emergency period Millbrook will ensure that the monitoring arrangements for call alarms will be maintained for residents.

Millbrook will also carry out any emergency repairs needed to equipment.

The Councils commercial services team is working to secure a new, long-term contract with Millbrook to provide the full service that NRS provided.

If residents have any existing NRS equipment they no longer need, they should keep hold of it for now.

Much of the equipment is designed to be recycled and reused, which helps keep costs down. It also means that unused equipment can be given to someone else so they can remain independent in their home.

The Council are working with Millbrook to identify how this equipment can be collected or returned.