Waste Introduction
Every year the NHS produces 250,000 tonnes of waste. The costs to treat and dispose of this waste to the NHS is in excess of a staggering £65million. During 2014/2015, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust spent £964,763 removing 3160 tonnes of waste.
That is the equivalent to the weight of approximately 900 ambulances.
As a Trust employee, you have a legal Duty of Care to responsibly manage all healthcare and non-healthcare waste. Breaching waste management legislation could result in prosecution, fines and prison terms.
The most important thing that you must do is correctly assess and segregate the waste that YOU produce, this will:-
• Ensure legal compliance
• Improve the patient experience
• Protect patients, visitors & staff
• Drive down waste costs
• Protect the environment
• Provide relevant information for outside authorities, i.e. Police/Fire
The Waste Hierarchy
We should apply the Waste Hierarchy to minimise the amount of waste we produce. If reducing, reusing or recycling is not possible, then all measures should be taken to dispose of waste in a responsible way.
Poor waste management could result in patients, staff, visitors, contractors, waste operatives and outside authorities incurring health & safety and infection risks.
Further information can be found in the the Waste Management Policy and Procedures.
What do you need to do?
Each member of staff must be diligent when handling waste and needs to make sure that Trust procedures are followed at all times.
To complete Moodle Waste Training, click the link: Moodle Waste Training
Waste Management Policy
The policy covers all waste management related activity within the Trust and should be read in conjunction with the Standard Operating Procedures. Together, they form the Trust Waste Management Policy. The supporting documents are available in the Procedures & SOPs, Protocols and Guidelines on SharePoint.Waste Management Policy
Waste Management SOP’s
Policies relating to specific areas of waste management (e.g. Health, Safety and Risk Management, Infection Prevention and Control and Medicines Management) will be drawn upon and referenced.
This policy is applicable to ALL EMPLOYEES in their day-to-day work, on behalf of Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust. This policy also covers volunteers, students, those on work placements and contractors. The policy applies to everyone who engages in activities on behalf of the Trust, not just those with a specific responsibility for waste management.
For the sake of brevity all such people are included in the term “employees” in this policy.
For general questions on waste management please use this email address
Email Waste Management Team
The Trust’s clinical waste disposal contractor is SRCL (Stericycle) who also provide a managed service for Bio System reusable sharps containers.
Bio System SRCL Website
SRCL (Stericycle) employee contact details for Bio System are:
Team Leader: Jonathon Watson, Coordinator, Tel 07825 848330
System Operative, Heartlands Hospital: Richard Ling, Tel 07711 596286
System Operative, Good Hope Hospital: Steve Corcoron, Tel 07702 518519
System Operative, Solihull Hospital: Jae Wignall, Tel 07711 596 286
Trust Wide Waste Contract Management:
Tony Cressey, Head of Facilities, Tel: 0121 424 3852
Email Tony Cressey
Site Waste Leads:
Heartlands Hospital: Martin Adams, Trust Transport Manager, Tel 0121 424 2798
Email Martin Adams
Good Hope Hospital: Sarah Farmer, Portering Manager Good Hope, Tel 0121 424 7167
Email Sarah Farmer
Solihull Hospital: Susan McAlister, Housekeeping & Portering Manager Solihull, Tel 0121 424 5452
Email Susan McAlister
External Website Links
(Rapide Account Code 2093)
