A full-time carer furious over bungled clinical waste collections took direct action and dumped a sack of waste at the civic offices last week.
Terry White, of Reading Road in Winnersh, was left fuming after bin collectors failed to collect clinical waste on time three weeks out of five since he started using the service at the end of July.
Mr White is a full-time carer for his 87-year-old mother Helen, who has been diagnosed with bowel cancer.
After Wokingham Borough Council’s contractor for the service, Grundon, again failed to collect the waste last Wednesday, Mr White decided to take his protest to the doorstep of Shute End.
On Thursday, Mr White headed to the civic offices armed with the uncollected bag of waste, which he then left on the premises.
http://www.getwokingham.co.uk/news/s/2078142_carer_takes_waste_protest_to_the_source
It’s not the right thing to do, but you have to smile at this shining example of direct action.
It can be a real problem for patients and their carers, when clinical and incontinence wastes pile up at home. Timely collections are really important, for those trying to maintan some dignity in their own home, perhaps with space constrains and possibly real issues of odour that in shared premises may affect neighbours also.
Hospitals, GPs, community nursing services and PCTs, Local Authorities and waste contractors must develop robust systems to enrol domicillary patients for clinical waste collections, managing the time and frequency of those collections with clinical need and not solely to the convenience of drivers who may want to leave their depot at 6am or earlier.
Three cheers for Terry.