Perhaps not surprisingly, another Ireland hospital has been found in breach of hygiene standards, and clinical waste mismanagement features in the list of failures. Presently, Ireland is in the middle […]
The RCN report compiled and published in 2011 from a raft of Freedom of Information (FoI) requests concerning waste management in the NHS has recently come to the fore. The report […]
There have been mutterings recently from the Scottish Parliament of sanctions to be held against healthcare professionals – doctors were singled out but this presumably embraces all – who fail on […]
We make no excuses for repeating on the Clinical Waste Discussion Forum criticism of individuals at the Environment Agency who seek to impose their way onto waste management companies dressed up […]
There are several “Blue Books”. The term is often used to refer to an almanac or other compilation of statistics and information, a vade mecum. The term dates back to the […]
The effective treatment of biohazardous clinical wastes in resource-poor regions is a huge problem. Open burning in a pit is environmentally unsound and polluting and will not make safe all […]
An Arizona nurse has created shoulder bags from discarded non-woven polypropylene surgical wrap from surgical instrument wraps. Often discarded – unnecessarily, as it is merely a sterile outer wrapper for sterile […]
The producer pays principle is well known and well-established. However, when and how do payments arise? Householders pay for waste disposal though their community charge payments, now with addition levies […]
The NHS is going green, slightly, in small, slow steps, but it IS going green. Many items are reused when it is safe to do so, with expensive disposables side lined […]
Love it or loathe it? PVC cannot be eliminated from hospitals, for flooring or for the manufacture of IV bags and tubing where crystal clarity and high flexibility are essential. […]
What to do with all of those unwanted medical supplies? The pack of 6 with just 2 used; the unused gauzes or tubing sets; the spare syringes and needles? Even […]
Trust orders report as bags labelled ‘medical waste’ found on road. So screams the headline of the Londonderry Sentinel. It is a cause for concern, for several reasons. On May […]
Knee replacement surgery produces more waste than family of four in one week. Operations to replace worn out knees in Canada are generating nearly half a million kilograms of surgical […]
Today, I stumbled upon an iPhone and iPad App that offered guidance on health and safety in the social care sector. With some authority, the App presents a well-structured short guide […]
Hospitals produce vast quantities of waste – we know that – but some fractions of that waste justify separate collection where possible. One important but commonly overlooked fraction is that […]
The press are today full of comment about hospital hotels, a new – at least new to the UK – initiative to use hotels as a half-way house for patients […]
Some time has passed since this paper by Green and Griffiths was published. Unsurprisingly, the professional journals and magazines, and the trades union RCN are up in arms about the impact […]
“While Tanzania’s leading health facility, the Dar-es-Salaam Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) boasts of having a well-managed system for disposing infectious medical waste, The Citizen on Saturday has discovered that the situation […]
There are several, perhaps many, W2E plants popping up. Indeed, with a sometimes indecent hast to capture a slice of the market the number of plants under construction and in planning […]
The Dutch firm Orthometals is successfully operating a metals recovery service for crematoria, collecting implant metals, and if they’re lucky the odd gold ring and several shiny gold tooth caps […]
Regulators and those who follow on their every word continue to be exercised by the question of pharmaceutical residues from clinical wastes. Of course, bulk pharmaceutical wastes from the pharmacy department or […]
The disposal of human tissues in the UK is subject to the provision of the Human Tissue Act 2004 that has created particular difficulties for medical historians, archivists, researchers and routine […]
A Brunswick, Maine, hospital is reported to be successfully recycling operating room waste into park benches. Mid Coast Hospital has launched a new recycling program that turns plastic waste from its […]
In a surprisingly practical note to the The European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy: Science and Practice (EJHP) a UK pharmacist discusses the many situations occurring outside the immediate clinical environment where […]
It has become apparent that the waste sector injury rate is actually higher than reported because of a data error by HSE; accident rates for 2011/12 were actually UP rather […]
Basildon Hospital Trust have failed miserably to separate clinical from domestic-type refuse resulting in what is apparently widespread contamination of a Veolia site. Now, hospital porters who volunteered for the […]
Nice piece by Deanne Halvorsen in the magazine Pharmacy Purchasing and Products concerning the implementation of a strategic pharmaceutical waste management program that can result in several benefits, including increased environmental stewardship, regulatory compliance, […]
How do we improve clinical waste disposal practice? The answer to this question is not so easy. There is the hugely bloated HTM 07-01 that seeks to instruct but not inform, […]
It’s always pleasing to help put the record straight, or more precisely to help others get it right. In the piece Lies, damned lies, and statistics, we were hugely critical of […]
There are many pressures on hospitals and other healthcare service providers, healthcare consumables and equipment suppliers, designers, builders and operators of healthcare premises, and of those servicing the waste disposal […]