A two-year conundrum for Isle of Wight sharps bin users has been branded “unacceptable”, as responsibility has been pushed from one authority to another.
The bins are a way to safely dispose of used medical needles for those who self-treat conditions at home, including Type 1 Diabetes.
Insufficient bins
However, bulky medical equipment is filling up small one-litre bins quickly and patients are finding the larger five-litre bins hard to come by.
The problem has seen some patients “wrapping up their used needles and putting them in the domestic waste” as there are also insufficient supplies of one-litre bins.
Using screwdrivers and pliers
Concerns were raised at Monday night’s meeting of the Isle of Wight council’s policy and scrutiny committee for health and social care by Richard Knowles, who said so as not to overload the sharps bin, he has been using screwdrivers and pliers on his wife’s medical equipment to separate the sharps from the rest of the waste.
Mr Knowles said the one-litre bins are “not suitable or fit for purpose” for 1,000 Island patients with Type 1 Diabetes and after two years of asking for the five-litre bins to be added to the sharps disposal scheme there has been “no meaningful progress”.
Shortage of bins
He said residents were struggling to get sufficient numbers of one-litre bins required to safely store and dispose of the larger medical sharps and that his wife needs a new one-litre box every ten days.
Once a bin is full, Islanders can take them to their local pharmacies where they are collected and disposed of correctly.
Councillor Andre will investigate
It is the Isle of Wight council’s responsibility to then dispose of the sharps, says the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board, but Councillor Debbie Andre, the council’s adult social care said yesterday, she would look at where the responsibility lies.
The two authorities have been in talks for more than two years over whose responsibility it is and to get the larger five-litre bins added to the collection service.
Nicholson: Little confidence to the ability of health partners
Councillor Michael Lilley, chair of the committee, said the situation was unacceptable while Councillor John Nicholson, the vice-chair, said it gives “little confidence to the ability of health partners if we cannot get something as simple, essential and as basic as sharps bins collected”.
In response to Mr Knowles, the council said it was looking to develop a pre-booked sharp boxes collection service but “given the added cost the authority was exploring funding options which may include a nominal fee.”
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which News OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may have been made by OnTheWight. Ed
