East Kent Hospitals Trust admits health and safety failure as clinical waste is mixed up with linen at William Harvey in Ashford.

In Clinical waste goes to hospital laundry, the Clinical Waste Discussion Forum reported an internal staff briefing that sought to eliminate used needles getting swept up with linen and sent to the laundry. Apparently worse than this was the early attempt to reverse an open and honest admission as part of their attempts to eliminate the problem, when instruction and training material was removed from public view.

But it has all blown up in the Trust’s face now, as a further report of poor waste management and laundry practices surface. This time, a soiled dressing went off with the laundry, was laundered – seeming not very well – and then pressed and returned to the ward as clean bed linen!

more http://www.kentonline.co.uk/canterbury/news/blooded-bandages-mixed-up-with-34179/