The Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Community Equipment Loan service has been provided by Medequip since April 2024. As well as introducing a new provider, the contract also brought together two long standing services, so we faced lots of challenges!
At our one-year anniversary with Medequip, we spent some time with our Prescribers, Team Leads and Medequip to reflect on what had gone well and what had been a challenge. So here are some of our high (and low) lights from our first year!
Our biggest learning: Engagement & Transparency
We knew that engaging with Prescribers throughout the Tender and Mobilisation processes was important to ensure that the service that was fit for purpose. However, I think we underestimated its true value.
Having Prescribers and their Team Leaders involved in the decision making helped to develop their sense of ownership with the changes and the new service. We sought their input into choosing the equipment range and developing operating procedures. We ensured that they had the information ahead of any meetings, so that they could consider and discuss with colleagues to prepare feedback and ideas.
However, this also had its challenges. With over 2,000 Prescribers and over 80 teams accessing the service, we know that we are never going to keep everyone happy! In our meetings we continually refer to our 80 / 20 rule: any idea must meet the needs of 80% of our users. The needs of the other 20% we will try to meet through a special order or in discussion with Medequip on a case by case basis.
We continue with this level of engagement even now. Some of the suggestions are amazing – but we just can’t afford them. However, they still spark good conversation and we often find we can still take elements of the idea that are affordable and put these into practice. We also love the functionality of sending a newsletter via TCES Community to all Prescribers, so we can keep everyone updated of any changes really quickly. Medequip have also hosted a number of events to encourage Prescribers to visit the depot to physically see the scale of the service, all the different elements involved and volume of equipment available. One Prescriber was astounded that the equipment was cleaned by real people, as she thought it was cleaned by robots!
As part of our tender process we also asked one of our partner organisations (Healthwatch) to work with our user groups across BLMK to gain their ideas on what service they wanted to receive. Luckily their suggestions matched the ideas of both Commissioners and Prescribers, which was very reassuring and gave us confidence that our service specification was right!
In April 2025, we bought all the Team Leads physically together in one room for our regular Operational Meeting (rather than just being on a screen) and we all celebrated our 1st Anniversary with Medequip. Atlanta, our Senior Operations Manager, even organised for a cake to be baked to celebrate, which was absolutely delicious!
We asked all the Team Leads to share what they felt had gone well and what was still a challenge. All comments were anonymous, so they could all provide their honest feedback. It was lovely to see that the number of compliments completely outweighed the number of challenges, and some simple positive developments were suggested.
Finally, engagement and transparency with Medequip has been vital to the service being a success. Regular meetings with Michaela (General Manager) and Atlanta (Senior Operations Manager) have been absolutely essential. We have had some very healthy debates on certain topics – but have always respected the others’ opinion and always managed to reach a compromise.
Our biggest achievement: Consistently achieving KPIs
Our service went live on 1st April 2024, which happened to be Good Friday! So Medequip were thrown in at the deep end, straight into an Out of Hours service. However, from Day One, all the key performance indicators (KPIs) relating to service delivery have been exceeded.
It has been so beneficial to have clear operating procedures, which we have uploaded to TCES and can refer Prescribers back to if they raise any queries.
Our biggest challenge: Recycled specials
Bringing together two services from two depots also meant bringing together two collections of recycled specials (RSPs). Although we tried hard to review all the RSPs during the mobilisation period, we were still shocked at the volume when they were all brought together under Medequip’s new roof.
Working closely with Medequip’s Clinical Team, it has taken a significant amount of time to review all items. We have had to be bold in our decision making on what we wanted to keep and what we would donate to charity.
We continue to review our RSPs on a regular basis, as obviously it is constantly changing. We also review the dates of manufacture and have recently found a return sling with a date of manufacture of 1999! It must have been sitting in a cupboard, as it looked brand new!
It is really important that Prescribers have confidence when ordering an RSP, so we asked them to tell us was what they considered to be a basic specification for certain items. The debate on a basic specification on children’s seating and whether harnesses and trays were essential items was very interesting, and still rumbles on!
As part of our training sessions and Open Days we always encourage Prescribers to look around the RSP area so they are familiar with what is available. We often find our paediatric colleagues will then reserve items whilst they identify a child that will benefit from a standing frame or walker!
And finally… Location!
Within our service specification, we left it to the Providers to determine the location of the depot(s). Our only stipulation was that it needed to be within the geographical footprint of BLMK. We knew that any Provider would probably opt for just one site and we knew that this may upset some Prescribers. However, we didn’t realise that the level of reaction would be quite so passionate
But once the teams visited the new Depot to see the scale and have confidence in the service provided, the moans and groans on location have ended (I hope!).