From: Ian blenkharn@ianblenkharn.com
Category: Miscellaneous
Date: 29 Okt 2009
Time: 10:46:20 +0100
Remote Name: 86.138.129.105
I received yesterday a press release from a hospital equipment supply company praising the decision of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust to discard all of their traditional metal bin/sack holders used for soft clinical wastes and to replace these with a new all-plastic alternative.
It's a great decision. Easier to clean with no metal seams and folds that harbour dirt and resist decontamination. No sharp edges. Compliant with fire resistance requirements. And best of all, quite in use ....there are few noises most likely to disturb the sleep of a ward full of patients that the clanking of a bin lid!
But as per current but entirely informal standard, these sack holders are coloured yellow. They may hold orange sacks, yellow sacks, or even black sacks making it likely that where choice exists the user may make an error in segregation at the point of disposal. I place the blame at the door of the EA, who pushed through an illogical and ill-conceived waste segregation standard and colour coding convention that has so little to offer other than unnecessary cost and confusion.