Department of Health
Richmond House
79 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2NS
Tel: 020 7210 3000
PO00000272956
Mr Ray Mackey
Chairman
National Kidney Federation
6 Stanley Street
Worksop
S81 7HX
13 Feb 2008
Dear Mr Mackey,
Thank you for your letter of 21 January about clinical waste products from peritoneal dialysis patients.
On 30 November 2006, the Department of Health published Health Technical Memorandum 07-01: Safe Management of Healthcare Waste, a best practice guide to the management of healthcare waste. This document was produced with the full involvement and support of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department for Transport and the relevant regulatory bodies to ensure it encapsulated legislative and regulatory requirements as well as best practice guidance. The document can be found on the Department of Health website at: www.dh.gov.uk (enter ‘healthcare waste’ in the search bar).
This guidance points to the roles and responsibilities of those who produce healthcare waste including local authorities, healthcare workers, patients who are treated in their own homes and people who self-medicate.
With regard to household waste, Section 45 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 states that it is the duty of each waste collection authority to arrange for the collection of household wastem in its area. It also states that the authority may make a reasonable charge for the collection of certain houshold wastes to reflect the higher disposal costs and the separate collection arrangements that have to be made. Types of household waste for which a charge for collection can be made are listed in Schedule 2 of the Controlled Waste Regulations 1992. These include clinical waste from a domestic property.
For ease of reference, clinical waste is defined under the Controlled Waste Regulations 1992 as meaning any waste which consists wholly or partly of human or animal tissue, blood or other body fluids, excretions, drugs or other pharmaceutical products, swabs or dressings, or syringes, needles or other sharp instruments, being waste which unless rendered safe may prove hazardous to any person coming into contact with it; and any other waste arising from medical, nursing, dental, veterinary, pharmaceutical or other similar practice, investigation, treatment, care, teaching or research, or the collection if blood for transfusion, being waste which may cause infection to any person coming into contact with it.
However, if patients are treated in their own home by a community nurse or by any other NHS professional, any waste produced as a result is considered to be the healthcare professional’s waste. Detailed guidance on the safe management of this waste and the duties on the healthcare professionals and the options available to them is available on pages 62 to 67 of the Department of Health’s guidance referred to above.
If patients treat themselves in their own home any waste produced as a result is considered to be their own. Only when a particular risk has been identified (based on medical diagnosis) does such waste need to be treated as hazardous clinical waste. In these cases, local aithorities are obliged to collect the waste separately when asked to do so by the waste holder, but may make a charge to cover the cost of collection.
I hope this reassures you that we take healthcare waste disosal seriously. Let me also reassure you that there has been no move away from ‘yellow’ clinical bags due to cost. What there has been is a move towards a better and safer method of segregation, which has entailed introducing a new national colour coding approach for waste receptacles. this has resulted in yellow receptacles denoting waste that requires disposal by incineration, and orange receptacles denoting waste that is suitable for disposal by appropriately licensed non-burn alternative technology plant.
ANN KEEN
Approved by the Minister’s Private Office and signed electronically in her absence.
The National Kidney Federation cannot accept responsibility for the views expressed by others in these letters pages.
Page created: 18 April 2008
Last updated: 19 April 2008
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