LACK OF SUITABLY SIZED MEDICAL SHARPS BINS BRANDED ‘UNACCEPTABLE’ BY COUNCILLORS

A 2-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. However, bulky medical equipment is filling up small 1-litre bins quickly and patients are finding the larger 5-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 1-litre bins. Concerns were raised at last night’s (Monday) 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 2 years of asking for the 5-litre bins to be added to the sharps disposal scheme there has been “no meaningful progress”. He said residents were struggling to get sufficient numbers of 1-litre bins required to safely store and dispose of the larger medical sharps and that his wife needs a new 1-litre box every 10 days. Once a bin is full, Islanders can take them to their local pharmacies where they are collected and disposed of correctly. 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 2 authorities have been in talks for more than 2 years over whose responsibility it is and to get the larger five-litre bins added to the collection service. 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.”