OBH director of nursing Sue Patterson said the money used to replace the missing crutches could be used to buy other much-needed equipment for the hospital.

“We always make sure we have a ready supply for people who need them but we are continually replacing the ones that are not returned,” she said.

“This money could be used for other things.”

Despite sending reminder letters there is very little the hospital can do to retrieve the crutches and is simply forced to rely on the honesty of the community.

“People probably don’t need them anymore and put them in a corner and forget about them,” she said.

“We’d be grateful if people could just return them to the emergency department anytime, no questions asked.”

All crutches that are returned should be made of aluminium and in good condition.

Each set of unreturned crutches costs $30 to replace.