As we previously reported, new rulings mean sharps boxes will not be able to be taken to GP surgeries. Fenland District Council will instead be responsible who say it will be in force from April 2019.

The change is not supposed to be in force until April 2019 but at some locations the change has already taken place without a replacement service put in place by Fenland district Council.

There is talk that patients will have to pay £8 a time to have their sharps bins collected.

Councillor Virginia Bucknor, said: “This should not be coming into effect until at least next year although at a recent council meeting some thought the changes would be introduced from September.

She said it: “Does not make any sense whatsoever. It is illogical to suggest a van going around collecting needles when currently the simple system is to collect from surgeries and chemists.”

She feared that the £8 charge would result in people throwing their sharps and pads into their green bins.

“I’ve just had a Wisbech town councillor ask what to do with sharp boxes as someone took their’s to Boots and was refused.

“When I raised at September’s FDC meeting I was told by Councillor Peter Murphy I was making political shenanigans and that people could still take their boxes in to chemists as usual and nothing would alter until next year.

“We have thousands of people this affects, 200 registered drug users, many people who have clinical waste requiring collections and thousands of diabetics.

“An elderly lady called me so upset. The nurse took the sharps box but not her husband’s pads. She is calling me back as I could only advise her to call FDC who denied to me that it was happening until next year.

“The whole issue is ill-thought out and we are being kept in the dark.”

In Chatteris, a woman who injects a drug, that could be fatal in the wrong hands, is worried about infection control and safety.

https://www.cambstimes.co.uk/news/sharps-bins-fenland-district-council-george-clare-1-5764686

Expect more dumping of these wastes, and increasingly poorer service for patients in Fenland.