Liaising with local councils and spreading the word about the importance of collecting and recycling community equipment is an important part of the work carried out by Medequip at grass roots level, continuously improving collection rates to optimise public funds.
Taking this a step further, Medequip is now collaborating closely with household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) in Kent and the WheelEasy Mobility charity to recover unwanted wheelchairs and ensure these can be repaired and reused by families in need.
Medequip has an existing partnership with HWRCs across Kent, operating a number of equipment collection containers sited at the centres and with plans in place to extend the facility to smaller HWRCs in the near future. Medequip has also been working with WheelEasy Mobility, a Maidstone-based charity, collaborating to collect Medequip equipment as well as donating items for use by the charity.
WheelEasy Mobility supports people thrown into crisis, offering short-term provision of wheelchairs and mobility aids to ensure people and families can continue to get out and about. The charity also welcomes donations of wheelchairs and other mobility aids which are refurbished and provided to people in the community needing a longer-term solution.
Which is where the partnership with the HWRCs comes in. The centres often have unwanted wheelchairs left with them, which can end up being scrapped. Medequip has agreed to provide a logistics service using its own fleet of vehicles, already collecting on a regular basis from the different sites, to pick up the wheelchairs and deliver these to WheelEasy Mobility.
WheelEasy Mobility is run by volunteers with experience and knowledge of issuing equipment to fit individual needs as well as the ability to refurbish donated wheelchairs. The delivery service provided by Medequip will mean the charity is able to offer more wheelchairs into the community at a much-reduced cost. One recent example includes a wheelchair gifted to a homeless person who would otherwise have been unable to obtain one.
“Medequip’s contribution by providing a logistics service to deliver unwanted wheelchairs to our Maidstone site for repair and reuse is already playing a part in increasing the availability of both short- and long-term wheelchair solutions for people and families in need.” Pauline, WheelEasy Mobility, Maidstone