Six figure bill for destroying healthcare waste

It has recently been reported that it costs NHS Shetland £150,000 a year to ship medical waste south for destruction – enough to pay for four nurses.

The revelation comes as patients who take regular medication are being urged to review the medicines they take as part of a new campaign .

Every month NHS Shetland collects unused medicines returned to community pharmacies.

This has to be shipped south for destruction and each year the total cost of medicine destroyed in this way is around £150,000. Transport and destruction costs add another £10,000.

Blenkharn Environmental have spent much time and effort in finding cost-effective solutions for the safe and fully compliant management of healthcare wastes from remote and island communities. Shipping wastes is rarely part of the solution, as the Shetland Times report acknowledges. But neither too is a plan to persuade the population to stop asking their GP for a prescription or repeat prescription.

Of course, restricting unnecessary drug administration is important, but responsibility lies with the prescriber who may be pestered by a patient but has the duty to say NO when drugs are unnecessary or inappropriate.

As we have noted previously on the Clinical Waste Discussion Forum, preaching to patients while ignoring the bad prescribing habits of GPs is entirely wrong and inevitably ineffective. Let’s hope that Shetland realises before too much effort is expended for little gain.