PHS Wastemanagement Urges Doctors to Segregate Medicine Prescription Waste
Cardiff (PRWEB UK) 6 August 2013 -- Last month, a report in the BBC revealed that £300m of prescription drugs are being needlessly thrown away every year because of the way medicines are prescribed, ordered and consumed by patients.
PHS Wastemanagement, the leading provider of pharmaceutical waste collection and disposal services in the UK, is now urging doctors to dispose of surplus medicinal waste correctly to save significant amounts of money on collection.
Rose Bristow from PHS Wastemanagement said: “The BBC report revealed that pharmacies are being inundated with waste prescription medicines, which have to be disposed of in compliance with the Misuse of Drugs Act 2001.
“Unfortunately, many pharmacies make the mistake of putting their hazardous and non hazardous waste into the same hazardous waste bin, because they are unsure of the correct way to dispose of controlled drugs and pharmaceutical waste.
“This means they incur associated hazardous waste charges, which they could have avoided by simply segregating their waste correctly.”
PHS Wastemanagement explains that general pharmaceutical waste is actually classed as non hazardous; including expired, used, contaminated and spilt pharmaceutical drugs.
Controlled drugs are also deemed non-hazardous, but they have to be denatured before they can be disposed of with other non hazardous waste.
Hormone and cancer treatments are the exception; this type of waste is classified as hazardous and should be segregated from other controlled drugs.
Rose Bristow continued: “As the UK’s leading provider of pharmaceutical waste collection and disposal services, PHS Wastemanagement can advise NHS Trusts, pharmacies, dispensing GP Practices and hospitals on the correct disposal methods for their waste.
“This will include information on which medicines are classed as hazardous, and which are non hazardous.
“PHS Wastemanagement can then collect your waste at a frequency to suit you, offering a complete disposal audit from point of use right through to final destruction.
“Medical waste is a highly legislated area and we will ensure that all waste is handled strictly in line with current legislation and according to Best Practice Guidelines.”
Notes for editors
About PHS
The PHS Group is a leading workplace services provider, and has traded in the UK since 1963. It has a diverse service portfolio aimed at improving work and leisure spaces, while making life much easier for facilities, building and people managers.
PHS really does ‘do more than you think’, providing products and services for:
• Crate rental and packaging
• Interior and exterior planting
• Laundry equipment and workwear
• Matting and flooring
• Records storage and management
• Shredding and recycling
• Testing and compliance
• Washrooms
• Waste management
• Water machines
• Workplace consumables
PHS provides these direct to UK companies, and also operates as a tier one supplier to the facilities management market, supporting the integrated service propositions of most of the major FMs.
The PHS Group’s annual turnover for the year ending March 2012 was £422 million. It employs around 5,000 personnel, operates from a wide network of 153 regional service branches, and takes care of over 250,000 customers at over 450,000 locations in the UK, Ireland, Holland, Belgium and Spain.
http://www.phs.co.uk/wastemanagement
Debbie Rowles, PHS Wastemanagement, http://www.phswastemanagement.co.uk/, 02920 809753, [email protected]
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