A saving you can report
- Avoided new-kit spend, counted item by item
- Monthly report ready for the board pack
- Live count of assets out and their value
Walking-aid recovery for hospital Trusts
Get your crutches (and other walking‑aids) back easily.
CrutchBack finds loaned crutches, frames and wheelchairs out in the community, asks patients to get them ready, and puts each pick-up on a visit your community teams are already making.
Uses your existing asset stickers
No app for patients
£349 a month, rolling
Example Trust
£41,860
new-kit cost avoided this year, 2,318 items out
4 in 10
walking aids never come back.
Every crutch, frame and wheelchair leaves the ward with an asset number on it. Most patients have no idea they're meant to return it, and nobody knows where it ended up. So your Trust buys it again.
Attics and garagesAbsorbed by care homesHousehold wastePassed on to neighbours
How it works
Every item is lent to come back.
Like a boomerang, every walking aid leaves with a way home built in. CrutchBack sends each one a "get me home" message, and makes the return easy for the patient and cheap for the Trust.
-
STEP 1
Log it out
Scan the sticker that's already on the kit when it's issued, or import your loan records. Nothing new to label.
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STEP 2
Nudge the patient
At the right time, the patient gets a text from your hospital. One tap tells you they've finished with it, still need it, or it's at a care home.
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STEP 3
Route the pick-up
Ready kit appears on a map for community nurses and therapists, ranked by value and how close it is to visits they've already planned.
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STEP 4
Back to Home Base
Kit is scanned in at a drop-off zone on site, cleaned and reissued. The saving is counted the moment it lands.
For patients
A message they'll trust, from your hospital.
Texts and pages carry your Trust's name and logo. The tone is friendly and clear: no charge, nobody's in trouble, and help to get the kit ready so they don't need to be in when it's collected.
OutWith a patient and still in use
On the way backPatient has finished with it
Gone quietOut 12+ weeks with no reply
CaughtTaken in by a care home
HomeBack at Home Base, ready to reuse
For NHS staff
Pick-ups that fit the round you're already doing.
Community nurses and therapists see only the kit that's ready and near a visit already in their diary. Collecting it takes under a minute. They can actively plan a collection if visiting or passing, or respond to a ‘nearby’ notification alert.
- See today's pick-upsThe home screen shows how many items are ready near your round, and the saving so far this year.
- Check the ranked listKit is ordered by value and by distance from your planned visits. Add any item to your round in one tap.
- Follow your round on the mapPick-ups sit on the route between your visits, so there are no extra trips.
- Open an item's historySee when it was issued, the texts sent and what the patient replied.
- Or respond to a pickup alert when nearbyGeofenced notifications flag ready kit as you pass. Opt-in, working hours only, and your location stays on your phone.
- Scan the existing stickerPoint the phone at the asset label that's already on the kit to confirm it's the right item.
- Send it homeDrop it at Home Base on your way back. The saving is counted straight away.
Benefits
Savings the board can see, with no extra trips.
Pick-ups that fit the day
- Only kit near visits already in the diary
- Patient has it ready by the door
- Scan the sticker and go, under a minute
Know where everything is
- Every loan on one map, by type and age
- Spot care homes holding Trust kit
- Fewer emergency orders and shorter waits
Easy to do the right thing
- A clear, kind text, not a demand
- Collected from home, or dropped at Home Base
- Told how much their return saved
Less going to landfill
- Reuse before replacement
- Fewer new aluminium frames bought
- Figures to support your green plan
A dedicated collector
- Some Trusts add one driver and a van
- CrutchBack plans their daily round
- The model below shows if it pays
Savings calculator
What could your Trust save?
Move the sliders to match your Trust. Starting values are illustrative.
New-kit cost avoided each year
£66,000
Extra items home1,200
Return on £4,188 a year16×
CrutchBack cost as a share of the saving
Estimate only. Excludes staff time, cleaning and the cost of waits for kit.
The evidence
The size of the prize is well documented.
Hospitals across the country already know how much walking-aid kit goes missing, and what getting it back is worth.
Royal Berkshire got back only 38% of crutches and 15% of frames last year, and puts the saving from returns at about £70,000 a year.
Source: Royal BerkshireNHS England says an average hospital could save up to £46,000 a year at a 40% return rate.
Source: walking aid reuse guidanceIn 2019, 66 Trusts spent over £14m on 560,000 walking aids.
Source: Stockport case studyPricing
One simple price per Trust.
£349 per month
Per Trust, excluding VAT. Rolling monthly, no setup fee during the pilot.
Pays for itself when two wheelchairs, or eight walking frames, come home each month.
Start a pilot- Unlimited staff users
- Patient texts and web pages
- Your Trust name and logo throughout
- Map, pick-up list and sticker scanning
- Set up Home Base drop-off zones
- Monthly savings report for the board
- Import from your equipment loan records
- Onboarding for one community team
Beyond walking aids
The same system works for anything you lend out.
Tag it at issue, nudge the patient, collect it on a visit you are already making. The more an item costs, the faster it pays back.
Remote monitoring kits
Tablets, pulse oximeters and blood pressure cuffs sent home with patients. Easy to return by prepaid post.
120 more kits back × £250= £30,000 a year
Syringe drivers and pumps
Often left in the home after a death. Families get a gentle, unhurried message, never a chase.
40 more pumps back × £1,500= £60,000 a year
Heart and blood pressure monitors
24-hour and 7-day recorders that patients forget to bring back to clinic.
25 more monitors back × £1,500= £37,500 a year
CPAP machines
Machines no longer used after treatment ends or a patient moves away.
60 more machines back × £400= £24,000 a year
Wound vacuum pumps
Often rented, so every day one sits unused in a home is a day you pay for.
50 pumps back 10 days sooner × £25 a day= £12,500 a year
Hoists, beds and mattresses
Larger kit, often run by your local equipment service. We can work with them too.
40 more hoists back × £1,200= £48,000 a year
Illustrative examples for a mid-size Trust. Item values are round estimates of replacement or rental cost.
Data and safety
Built to hold as little as possible.
CrutchBack tracks the kit, not the patient. Clinical records stay in your own systems.
Minimal data
Asset number, rough location, contact number for the text, and the patient's replies. Nothing clinical.
UK hosted
Data stored and processed in the UK, deleted when the item comes home.
Planned
Assurance pack
DTAC evidence, a DPIA template and a data security toolkit submission, ready before go-live.
Planned
Accessible
Patient pages built to WCAG 2.2 AA, with large text and plain English.
Questions
Questions Trusts ask
Do patients need to download an app?
No. Patients get a text with a link to a simple web page. Community staff use the CrutchBack app.
What if the patient still needs the kit?
They tap "I still need it" and we check again in four weeks. Nobody is chased while they're still using it.
Who actually collects the kit?
Mostly community nurses and therapists, and only when the kit is close to a visit they've already planned. Patients can also drop it at Home Base. Some Trusts may add a dedicated driver for the rest.
What about kit in care homes?
Care-home kit is marked as Caught. The home gets its own list of Trust items to return in bulk, or to keep under a recorded loan.
Does it work with our equipment service?
CrutchBack reads the asset numbers you already use. Loan records can be imported from a spreadsheet to start, with system links added later.
How do we measure if it's working?
The dashboard shows the return rate against your baseline, items out, and the new-kit cost avoided. The 90-day pilot ends with a short report you can take to the board.
Start small
Run a 90-day pilot with one community team.
- Week 1: import current loans and set up your Home Base.
- Weeks 2 to 12: patients get their "get me home" texts and the team collects on its rounds.
- Week 13: we hand you a savings report for the board.