Changes to clinical waste collections

When clinical waste is collected from our sites, a member of the Trust needs to sign a ‘hazardous waste consignment note’ before it can be taken away.

Unfortunately due to the nature of the work we do there’s sometimes no one available on site to sign the note, and recently that’s meant the waste has often not been collected. This results not only in collection charges, but the potential of infection, prevention & control (IPC) issues due to overflowing clinical waste bins.

To overcome this problem, the Trust has employed another waste driver to take over collections so that all Trust clinical waste, sharps and pharmaceuticals will now be collected in house.

The availability of two waste drivers will reduce our reliance on agency drivers during leave and should help ensure a more stable service.

The changes will start next week and should be completed by over the next two or three weeks; as part of the changes the collection days will be modified for all parts of the Trust. For low waste producing sites, the collection frequency and bin sizes may also be reduced, as the aim is to introduce a routine bin exchange service to help keep bins IPC compliant.

There will be a period of fine tuning of the collection rotas, but please don’t contact your local estates manager about missed collections until the bin is ¾ full.

Thank you for your patience whilst we put better service into operation for you.

Published 1st October, 2015