People recovering from an accident or illness can have equipment delivered to their home under a new scheme to be launched on Wednesday. The medical loans service, based at the Norfolk Coastal Centre for independent living at Beacon Park, Gorleston, can now deliver commodes, wheelchairs and bathing aids for short-term use.

People recovering from an accident or illness can

have equipment delivered to their home under a new scheme to be launched on Wednesday.

The medical loans service, based at the Norfolk Coastal Centre for independent living at Beacon Park, Gorleston, can now deliver commodes, wheelchairs and bathing aids for short-term use.

The service, being run with the British Red Cross, NHS Great Yarmouth and Waveney and Norfolk County Council, is the first of its kind in East Anglia helping people who have experienced a temporary crisis.

A spokesman said: “People come to our base in Gorleston to pick equipment up, which is OK if they are mobile and have their own transport, otherwise they have to rely on friends and families to do this for them.

“We have received additional funding through NHS Great Yarmouth and Waveney to provide a home delivery service to enable us to support people in need who are not able to get to Gorleston.

“We have a man and a van who will take equipment to people's homes.

“The area that we cover is the whole of Great Yarmouth borough and the Waveney area, from Winterton in the north down to Southwold.

So we are reaching people often in rural/isolated communities.”

The spokesman added: “This is the only service of its type that the Red Cross operates in East Anglia.”