# New size sharps boxes.



## glorybean (Jul 10, 2013)

Hi, I'm Gloria and I'm 69.  I really wanted to rant about the stupid 1-litre size sharps boxes my pharmacist has told me I must now use.  Has anybody else been told this?  I have been happily receiving free 2-3 litre sharps boxes for many years now, but he says it's a new ruling from the NHS.
Not only do these stupid size boxes get filled up too quickly, as I'm on 6 injections daily, as well as testing my blood sugar 4 times daily, they now come with absolutely waste-of-time plastic 'teeth' almost covering the slots where I have to drop my needles.  I have now stabbed myself several times trying to push the used needles through these tiny slots, and I'm extremely angry.  I asked my lovely gp to prescribe a larger box for me, without the plastic 'teeth' covering the slot, but when my prescription was filled you guessed it, the same size box appeared and the pharmacist again told me that was all I was now allowed.
Has anyone else overcome this problem?  And yes I know I could get my husband to cut off the teeth over the slot (I have trouble with my hands and cannot do this myself), but why should he have to?  He has enough to do being my carer, without taking on unnecessary jobs.  Has anyone managed to obtain the normal larger sharps boxes from their gp or pharmacist, with the large slots and no plastic 'teeth'.


----------



## DeusXM (Jul 10, 2013)

I genuinely don't know why on earth GPs are still prescribing sharps boxes.

Get your doc to prescribe you a Safe-Clip - these cut off the needle and you just take the unit (which is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand) into a chemist when it's full.

http://www.bd.com/uk/diabetes/page.aspx?cat=14153&id=31358


----------



## Redkite (Jul 10, 2013)

A new ruling from the NHS - what nonsense!  In our area, our local council collects our full sharps bin and delivers a new empty one.  We get a 5L one, anything smaller would be full in a week!

If your council can't help, try writing to your GP explaining the problems you have with the 1L bins.  This type of thing leads to people putting sharps out in their normal waste.....


----------



## Northerner (Jul 10, 2013)

Hi Gloria, welcome to the forum  I think sharps bin policy varies throughout the country from what I have read here in the past. I get my sharps bin (a huge 5L one which takes over a year to fill!) from the council - when it is full I give them a call, they collect it and leave a new one for me. It also has a wide opening to put the needles in.

Have you considered using a needle clipper instead? They are available on prescription.

This page may be of some help:

http://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Monitoring/Blood_glucose/Disposal_of_sharps/


----------



## LeeLee (Jul 10, 2013)

Hi Gloria, welcome.  

By saying 'the NHS', you pharmacist probably means your local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).  If you want to complain to them, rather than just swap to the clipper option, have a look at the Information messageboard, in the Links section.


----------



## Pumper_Sue (Jul 10, 2013)

Hi Gloria, just shout disability discrimination. Bet they will soon let you have the size box you require.


----------



## DeusXM (Jul 10, 2013)

Just want to add that the other thing with the clipper option is that you don't have to go through all the rigmarole of having to call the council to come collect your sharps and then wait around for them to show up - you can just take it into the chemist when you're refilling your prescription.

Plus, to me it just seems a bit more sanitary and presentable to have the clipper rather than have a bright yellow box with BIOHAZARD written all over it in your house.


----------



## everydayupsanddowns (Jul 10, 2013)

DeusXM said:


> Just want to add that the other thing with the clipper option is that you don't have to go through all the rigmarole of having to call the council to come collect your sharps and then wait around for them to show up - you can just take it into the chemist when you're refilling your prescription.
> 
> Plus, to me it just seems a bit more sanitary and presentable to have the clipper rather than have a bright yellow box with BIOHAZARD written all over it in your house.



I only ever used needle clippers on MDI, though on a pump there's a lot more stuff. It was one of the questions I asked at my pump clinic - what *exactly* needs to go in the sharps/contaminated bin. According to them, they would class pretty much everything (inc tubing) as either a 'sharp' or 'clinical waste'. 

We had some discussion about used test strips (are they any more or less than a plaster?) but there seemed to be less clarity about that.


----------



## LeeLee (Jul 10, 2013)

everydayupsanddowns said:


> We had some discussion about used test strips (are they any more or less than a plaster?) but there seemed to be less clarity about that.



I don't understand why there would be any controversy over test strips when there's no restriction on female sanitary items being wrapped and placed in the bin.


----------



## everydayupsanddowns (Jul 10, 2013)

LeeLee said:


> I don't understand why there would be any controversy over test strips when there's no restriction on female sanitary items being wrapped and placed in the bin.



Well no... but if you look into the regulations about what constitutes 'clinical waste' then it seems to extend to pretty much anything that has come into contact with blood and/or bodily fluids. Eg dressings (but somehow not, in everyone's mind, plasters!)

I'm happy to put strips into the regular waste untile I'm clearly directed otherwise by an HCP, though I did 'sharps bin' them for a short while. The trouble is, whenever I ask the question what I get is a discussion rather than a straight answer


----------



## LeeLee (Jul 10, 2013)

It would be prohibitively expensive to collect a clinical waste bin from every home where there is an adult female.  On the basis that non-sharp clinical waste of one kind is unrestricted, the pragmatic view would be to put everything except needles/lancets in the recycling or normal bin.  Feel free to shoot me down in flames!


----------



## everydayupsanddowns (Jul 10, 2013)

LeeLee said:


> It would be prohibitively expensive to collect a clinical waste bin from every home where there is an adult female.  On the basis that non-sharp clinical waste of one kind is unrestricted, the pragmatic view would be to put everything except needles/lancets in the recycling or normal bin.  Feel free to shoot me down in flames!



I have to say I don't disagree with you. Sanitary items and plasters (or tissues after a nose bleed?) from everyone else go in the standard waste after all.

On the other hand, to my mind our responsibility is at least partially psychological on behalf of the rubbish collectors.

I don't want anything 'needly' or 'sharp and medically' of mine inadvertently poking a collector in the finger. I know I am HIV and Hepatitis free but they don't. And I would imagine most of the upset (if an injury occurs) is their having to wait to get the 'all clear' from blood tests to check for infection.

With a pump there are all sorts of other sharp bits and pieces used to fill reservoirs etc, and while *I* know they have not come into contact with me at all, their medical-looking nature means I choose to put them in the sharps bin, just to avoid someone else having a wretched week or two imagining that they have stabbed themselves with something awful.


----------



## pav (Jul 10, 2013)

I get my sharps bins direct exchange from the GP's practice, they replaced mine a couple of weeks ago and was given a 7 ltr and a 1 ltr bin for away days, my last one was around 4 ltr's.


----------



## Vicsetter (Jul 10, 2013)

I'm amazed that there is still discussion about what goes in a sharps bin.  The clue is in the name.  If it can stab you or cut you and draw blood and it may be contaminated with blood it goes in a sharps bin.  Test strips go in general waste.

I cut the end off my needles with a pair or wire cutters and throw the tiny cut off bit in a 1L bin along with any lancets (although I now use a multiclix which can go in standard waste).  I've had the bin for over a year (probably a bit naughty as I believe they should be disposed of after 6 months).


----------



## Highlander (Jul 10, 2013)

Well I was given a clipper and a 1ltr yellow box and told to clip the end of the needles and put the remainder of the needle in the sharps box.  So that is what I do.  When full it goes to the surgery for a replacement.  

As for test strips they just go out in the rubbish.   Should I put them in the sharps bin as well?


----------



## Northerner (Jul 10, 2013)

Highlander said:


> Well I was given a clipper and a 1ltr yellow box and told to clip the end of the needles and put the remainder of the needle in the sharps box.  So that is what I do.  When full it goes to the surgery for a replacement.
> 
> As for test strips they just go out in the rubbish.   Should I put them in the sharps bin as well?



What you are doing sounds fine to me Highlander


----------



## trophywench (Jul 10, 2013)

I'm sorry, I always put the whole needle in the sharps bin, I mean it's pointy both ends and if it's come into contact with general muck and yer refuse operative gets 'stuck' he could catch anything - say my daughter has put her baby's dirty nappy in my bin?  Yes she'll have stuck the tape down round it but a fortnight later when they empty it ........

I also put the needle part of the reservoir in the sharps, likewise the endpiece of my tubing where you attach it to the cannula has a needle, so I cut that off into the sarps bin, rest of the tubing into the household waste.

You can cut those pesky plastic fingers off but you need something substantial to do so - I found secateurs did the job, after trying all sorts of things, but it was not without effort.

I whinged at the pharmacist and he laughed and said shedloads of other people had already done so, so henceforth he wasn't having that sort.  True to his word, we now have upright round ones like a small bright yellow plastic vase, really - with a great big hole in the lid!


----------



## Tina63 (Jul 20, 2013)

My son puts his whole needle in the sharps bin.  Do these needle clippers fit on the inside of a needle to cut the inner bit off too, because that's where I have stabbed myself whilst picking up one of my son's needles, on the inner part that sinks into the cartridge.  If they don't, then I would say the needle clipper isn't a safe option anyway.

We have started being given 1l boxes by our GP's surgery.  In one way I like the compactness of them, but I find it slightly disturbing that ours have this gaping big hole on the top so that you can just turn it upside down and have used needles falling out, several at a time.  We certainly don't have ones with a restricted opening, though the larger ones we used to have did.  There seem to be several designs.


----------



## everydayupsanddowns (Jul 20, 2013)

Tina63 said:


> Do these needle clippers fit on the inside of a needle to cut the inner bit off too, because that's where I have stabbed myself whilst picking up one of my son's needles, on the inner part that sinks into the cartridge.  If they don't, then I would say the needle clipper isn't a safe option anyway.



I always used the outer 'sleeve' to push that inner needle against the inside/thread. Because of the way it bent against the inside angle the sharp point was bent right away from the opening.


----------

