By . Emma Innes . PUBLISHED: . 07:25 EST, 10 January 2014 . | . UPDATED: . 08:00 EST, 10 January 2014 . Electronic tags are being put on hospital bedding because nearly £400,000 a year is being lost on missing linen. Tags are being put on 300,000 sheets, gowns and pillowcases to stop them disappearing from NHS wards and operating theatres. The tagging is being implemented by an NHS laundry which was fed up after spending £390,000 last year replacing bed sheets and gowns not returned by its hospitals. Aneurin Bevan University Health Board's laundry service, Green Vale, in Cwmbran, South Wales, is adding electronic tags to hospital bedding in a bid to cut the bill for replacing lost and stolen items . A variety of reasons were blamed for the vanishing sheets and gowns including petty theft, staff throwing them away and patients taking them home. Now Aneurin Bevan University Health Board’s laundry service, Green Vale, in Cwmbran, South Wales, has fitted radio frequency identification tags to the 300,000 pieces of linen. Health Board facilities manager Alan Dudley said: ‘It will help detect inappropriate disposal or quickly and accurately assess the stock available. ‘The disappearance of the items may be because it has been disposed of by staff who may consider it too soiled to launder, stolen, or left with patients when discharged home. ‘In an effort to reduce these losses, bed linen, patient gowns and theatre wear is being tagged to enable it be traced accurately to and from hospitals.’ The tags will allow scanners to count the pieces being dispatched and received by the laundry and also to detect linen lost in waste bags or stored in cupboards. The service is tagging 300,000 sheets and hospital gowns after spending £390,000 on replacements last year . Mr Dudley said: ‘This will allow Green Vale to identify at which sites losses are occurring and to work with staff to determine the actual causes and take action to prevent these. ‘Where losses continue then health boards will be charged for replacing the linen providing an incentive to take effective action to reduce the cost to NHS Wales of lost linen. ‘Harnessing technology in this way demonstrates how we in the public service can do things differently and better.’
Aneurin Bevan University Health Board’s .
laundry service, Green Vale, in South Wales, has fitted radio .
frequency tags to 300,000 pieces of linen .
Last year the service spent £390,000 replacing lost and stolen items .
By . Emma Innes . PUBLISHED: . 07:25 EST, 10 January 2014 . | . UPDATED: . 08:00 EST, 10 January 2014 . Electronic tags are being put on hospital bedding because nearly £400,000 a year is being lost on missing linen. Tags are being put on 300,000 sheets, gowns and pillowcases to stop them disappearing from NHS wards and operating theatres. The tagging is being implemented by an NHS laundry which was fed up after spending £390,000 last year replacing bed sheets and gowns not returned by its hospitals. Aneurin Bevan University Health Board's laundry service, Green Vale, in Cwmbran, South Wales, is adding electronic tags to hospital bedding in a bid to cut the bill for replacing lost and stolen items . A variety of reasons were blamed for the vanishing sheets and gowns including petty theft, staff throwing them away and patients taking them home. Now Aneurin Bevan University Health Board’s laundry service, Green Vale, in Cwmbran, South Wales, has fitted radio frequency identification tags to the 300,000 pieces of linen. Health Board facilities manager Alan Dudley said: ‘It will help detect inappropriate disposal or quickly and accurately assess the stock available. ‘The disappearance of the items may be because it has been disposed of by staff who may consider it too soiled to launder, stolen, or left with patients when discharged home. ‘In an effort to reduce these losses, bed linen, patient gowns and theatre wear is being tagged to enable it be traced accurately to and from hospitals.’ The tags will allow scanners to count the pieces being dispatched and received by the laundry and also to detect linen lost in waste bags or stored in cupboards. The service is tagging 300,000 sheets and hospital gowns after spending £390,000 on replacements last year . Mr Dudley said: ‘This will allow Green Vale to identify at which sites losses are occurring and to work with staff to determine the actual causes and take action to prevent these. ‘Where losses continue then health boards will be charged for replacing the linen providing an incentive to take effective action to reduce the cost to NHS Wales of lost linen. ‘Harnessing technology in this way demonstrates how we in the public service can do things differently and better.’
Aneurin Bevan University Health Board's laundry bid to cut the bill for replacing lost and stolen laundry service, Green Vale, in Cwmbran, South Wales, has fitted radio frequency identification tags to the 300,000 pieces of linen. Health Board