NHS Shetland bill for destroying medicines.

[Sukibind]

It costs NHS Shetland £10,000 a year to ship medical waste south for destruction, would it not be cheaper to destroy in the Lerwick incinerator?

 

http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2014/05/06/six-figure-bill-for-destroying-medical-waste/

 

[erter]

No, because only low risk Healthcare waste strains can be incinerated with other low risk domestic waste. High risk clinical waste must be treated differently by a specialised licensed service provider and disposed of legally.

 

High risk includes all waste from "clinical" procedures etc, not just medicines. Ill leave your imagination to run wild.

[JustMe]

I am somewhat confused by this.  Does the cost include all high risk waste being sent south for destruction in which case maybe the health board should be trying to find cost savings if they can be found, is this the figure for medication being shipped south for destruction in which case the figure is alarming or is this the total cost of medications shipped south including the original cost of the medications in which case it is high but not so alarming.

 

And if this is medications not used how much of the figure is from things held in pharmacies which reach their sell by date?.  Has to be room for efficiencies there.

[shetlandpeat]

I think the larger amount quoted in the paper is the cost of the prescribed items and it could have been made clearer in the report.

[paulb]

still a 150k in wasted drugs and it will be a lot more than that not everyone hands in spare tablets. its really down to us and the doctors to track the medicines we are given/ask for. 

[Colin]

It was presented as if it was almost the patients fault.  Sound to me more like a bit of over-prescribing going on.

[Sukibind]

I can see that some hospital waste needs particular care, but medicines are gathered by pharmacies, so cant be high risk.I had a quick google and there seems to be no reason not to burn them with household waste.There could be safeguards put in place to ensure they were burnt.

[erter]

Instead of googling you could quickly phone NHSS and ask them?

[Sukibind]

No, I wouldnt phone.. I might get some pompous windbag with nothing better to do than make smart remarks on the line.

[JustMe]

I have quite a lot of medications and prescribed things.......14 last time I counted.......and being a caring person not wanting to waste NHS funds I try to ensure that I only order what I need.  Occasionally I will have to dispose of something because of a change in my prescription but I still ask whoever is changing the prescription if I can finish up the previous prescription before starting the new one.  Often get a yes to that.

 

For safety reasons prescriptions returned to a pharmacy have to be disposed of rather than put back in stock.  Remember we live in a world where nasty people tamper with supermarket food so the NHS really cannot take a chance with medication.

 

One thing we can all do to help is to make sure we only request the things we need and when collecting prescriptions we can ask the pharmacy not to give us things that we have ordered but do not need as they can then be put back in stock.  Or so I am told as I am about to go onto a long term prescription plan.

 

Recently got a new doctor and they do seem to be reviewing patients repeat prescriptions which is good for the NHS and also good for the patient since taking medicine we do not need does us no good either.

[paulb]

totally agree been trying to run my stock pile down a bit but then i get changed have 1/2 or 1/4 tablets to save waste. with th wife working for the nhs i know what i use is over a 150 quids worth a month. we should all try to save what we can.