Service has ‘eyewatering’ write-off sum

AN internal audit found that equipment servicing is often overdue or not done at all, and the service is reporting £1.5 million worth of equipment write-offs.

Fife Council’s Standards, audit and risk committee councillors tackled the issue a meeting on Thursday.

The Fife Equipment Loan Store (FELS) provides a loan service for specialised medical equipment to support for Health and Social Care Partnership service users and stocks more than 600 different items from simple dressing and to specialised beds. However following an internal audit, the service has been ordered to make multiple improvements.

Auditors claimed contracted drivers who deliver and uplift equipment for FELS are not provided with any form of identification to help them verify who they are before entering a service user’s home. There is no “appropriate process” in place to make sure all items of equipment are serviced on time, or at all.

“As a result, servicing of equipment is not always carried out and when it is, it is often significantly past the due date,” a committee report stated.

According to auditors, there are no documented procedures for covering stock write-offs, and the stock adjustment, or write-off, report has “never been reviewed.”

“The stock adjustment report has never been reviewed and is showing a total of 30,164 items with a value of £1,591,923,” the report stated.

Councillor Ann Verner called the sum “horrific” and “eye-watering.”

Allan Halliday, operation and logistic commercial manager for FELS, was at the scrutiny meeting and said the £1.5 million write-off value is a result of flaws in the system, explaining that what’s been written off “is the labels and not the equipment.”

By the end of November, he said that they are looking to “tighten up” that process.

FELS has promised that by the end of March, all overdue servicing will be completed.