COMMUNITY HEALTHCARE WASTE MANAGEMENT PROCEDURE FOR COMMUNITY BASED SERVICES

Community Healthcare Waste Management Procedure

for

Community Based Services

Contents

Community Healthcare Waste Management Procedure 2

Hazardous/infectious - Soft waste 2

Topical Negative Wound Therapy 2

Sharps waste (yellow lidded) 2

Sharps waste (purple lidded) 2

Non-hazardous/infectious 2

Incontinence waste 2

Waste assessment and waste collection request form from patient’s home 4

WCA contacts for clinical healthcare waste generated in patient’s home 6

Community Healthcare Waste Management Procedure

The definition of clinical hazardous/infectious waste is provided by the Controlled Waste Regulations (issued under the Environmental Protection Act) and is defined as:

(a)‘any waste which consists wholly or partly of human or animal tissue, blood or other bodily fluids, excretions, drugs or other pharmaceutical products, swabs or dressings, syringes, needle or other sharp instruments, being waste which unless rendered safe may prove hazardous to any person coming into contact with it; and

(b) any other waste arising from medical, nursing, dental, veterinary, pharmaceutical or similar practice, investigation, treatment, care, teaching or research, or the collection of blood for transfusion, being waste which may cause infection to any person coming into contact with it.’

It is responsibility of the medical practitioner to decide if waste fits above definition, through patient’s medical information, for example type of illness, wound appearance and patient’s medical history etc.

Hazardous/infectious

Soft waste – this includes infectious/contagious waste from patients with clinical signs of wound infection and/or known infection, for example clostridium difficile, MRSA, HIV, Hepatitis C etc.

Waste will include wound dressings, sanitary items and personnel protective equipment (PPE).

All such waste should be placed into a yellow bag for disposal by local council at Healthcare worker’s written request. See attached waste disposal request form.

Medicinally impregnated dressings, pads are also classed as hazardous waste small amounts of this waste can be placed in a yellow sharps container. For large amounts of dressings and medicinally contaminated waste, e.g. IV medication etc. a yellow bag should be used.

Topical Negative Wound Therapy – sealed canisters should be placed in to a yellow bag and disposed of as yellow bag waste described above.

Sharps waste (yellow lidded) - this includes medicinally contaminated and non-contaminated sharps, small amount of medicine and residues, used blister strips and medicinally impregnated dressings/pads.

Sharps waste (purple lidded) – used for waste produced from chemotherapy treatment, for example sharps, residual medicine and PPE or any other treatment where hazardous medicines are administered i.e., hormonal drugs etc.

The sharps container described above should be transported to base or the nearest hospital/clinic where clinical waste collection is provided. The sharps containers should be placed into another rigid container for transportation.

Non-hazardous/ non-infectious

Any waste that does not fit into the above definitions can be treated as general household waste which will include catheter and stoma waste, dressing, sanitary product waste. When all such waste is generated through medical practitioner’s participation the waste should be doubled bagged and placed into patient’s own black bag bin.

NB. Never place a yellow bag in patient’s own general waste bin

Incontinence waste – if this service is set up by the Continence Team as a long term arrangement, the appropriate local waste collecting council should be notified so a larger bin or more frequent collections can be organised.

Waste Disposal Flowchart

WASTE ASSESSMENT & WASTE COLLECTION REQUEST FORM

FROM PATIENT’S HOME

SECTIONS A & B: (To be completed by Health Care Professional and faxed or emailed to relevant WCA contact)

SECTION A: Waste assessor details

Name: ____________________________Date: _________ Time: _____

Contact Address:

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

Tel No: _________________________

SECTION B: Details of the person for whom waste has been assessed

Title: _______ First name: _________________ ____________

Surname: __________________________________

Address: _____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

Tel No: _________________________

Date Service Required From: ________________________________

Collection Frequency: Weekly Intermittent i.e. sharps One-off

Collection point if known (e.g. front doorstep) _________________________

Estimated Quantity per week:

Less than half bag Half bag

One bag Two bags or more

WASTE CATEGORIES: TICK APPROPRIATE BOX:

Infectious Offensive/Hygiene

For Sharps collections the WCA will only collect from housebound patients. Please advise that this patient is housebound: Yes

**Please note: WCA’s do NOT offer a disposal service for pharmaceutical products or clinical waste generated by treatment with cytotoxic or cytostatic drugs. These items should be taken back to the surgery/hospital that prescribed the treatment.

Non-Infectious ‘Incontinence’ Type Waste

Has the Nurse advised the person that this type of waste can be disposed of with their normal household waste (i.e. black wheelie bin)? YES / NO

SECTION C: (To be completed by Waste Collection Authority)

Date Received: ______________________

Receiving Officer: __________________

Referred to: ____________________________

Service explained to Customer by: Telephone Letter Visit

Date: _________________________________

Selected Collection Option: Existing Bin Larger Bin

Additional Bin Separate Collection

If a Separate Collection is required:

Where will the sack be presented? _____________________________________________________________

Date Contractor Notified: _______________________________________

Instruction/Order Number: ______________

WCA CONTACTS FOR CLINICAL

HEALTHCARE WASTE GENERATED IN THE PATIENT’S HOME