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Management of Healthcare Waste from COVID-19

Please find below post from NHS Scotland – Residual waste from households with COVID-19, will still be classified as household waste (and not clinical) but the same principles regarding infection risk and PPE will apply.

NHS Scotland National Services Scotland (NSS) were appointed by Scottish Government to manage healthcare waste produced by or on behalf of NHS Scotland.  The healthcare waste management service team is working closely with Health Protection Scotland (HPS). HPS has provided a letter to our contracted suppliers who provide collection, logistics, transfer station and disposal services for healthcare waste from across Scotland. The HPS letter states that clinical waste from COVID-19 patients poses no greater risk than other clinical waste, specifically:

  • Clinical waste generated from a person known or suspected to have COVID-19 is orange stream clinical waste;
  • For most respiratory diseases, including COVID-19 there is no known risk of airborne transmission from the waste;
  • The use of existing PPE is considered sufficient, this should include gloves and hand hygiene should be reinforced.

Within a healthcare environment there is no requirement to treat COVID-19 waste differently from other healthcare wastes.  All staff throughout the waste management chain from clinicians involved in the production of the waste, to on-site waste teams should continue to use standard PPE (including gloves). A considerable amount of work has been undertaken to ensure continuity of service at this time.

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RMAS – Public Health Protection COVID-19

The Waste and Resource Management Sector identification of the key risks and the options for mitigation to ensure public health protection is maintained for the duration of the COVID-19 outbreak in Scotland.

RMAS Public Health Protection Covid-19 Presentation 2020

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Fair Work During the COVID-19 Crisis

Joint Statement by the Scottish Government and Scottish Trades Unions Congress

Coronavirus is affecting all our daily lives including our workplaces. We recognise the very challenging position that many employers and workers are now facing. We need a partnership, working in the national interest, to get through the next few months – a partnership that involves the public sector, unions, businesses, 3rd sector organisations, and all workers and managers. We are hugely appreciative of the many cases where this is already in place.

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COVID-19 – Dispatch and Debrief Distancing Measures

Issued by a Scottish Local Authority

Subject: New COVID-19 Working Procedures

Important – if you intend to use please review and adapt for your current situation.

In order to reduce the amount of contact and the number of people within handover areas at the start and finish of beats the following setup has been introduced:

Part of the messing space has been set out to enable route packs, keys and daily information sheets to be collected without the need to attend to the dispatch hatch.

Debriefs and updates will be conducted in the open on a one to one basis with the driver or another crew member with a table used to enable distancing to be maintained.

Other employees can maintain their distance by utilising the remainder of the messing area and outside mustering areas.

All bags and keys are returned to the individual beat chair at the end of the shift and disinfected once all the bags are returned ready for use the following day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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COVID-19 Scams

The National Trading Standards warns people to be cautious  following a rise in coronavirus scams that seek to benefit from the public’s concern and uncertainty over COVID-19.

Please share these posts which have designed to show you how to protect yourself and others from these scams.

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COVID-19 | Unsound waste management could cause “unforeseen knock-on effects”, says UN

The United Nations’ (UN) Environment Programme says governments must minimise possible secondary impacts upon health and the environment by treating waste management as “essential public service”.

Read more

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COVID-19 Updated Key Worker Guidance from Scottish Government

The following update has been provided by the Scottish Government regarding key workers:

Local authorities have been asked to take the definitions set out in the guidance as a guide and to consider any circumstances that mean that specific classes of worker are critical in their local contexts.

Our advice is for your members to make contact with the relevant local authority to discuss the need for key worker provision. If you are encountering difficulties or inconsistencies then our colleagues in the key worker team may be able to offer further advice or support, consistent with their role as set out in the guidance. The more specific you can be about companies, their role and relevant locations, the more likely it is that they may to be able to help.

As the guidance sets out, there are a number of conditions that need to be met in order for individuals to access the key worker childcare provision in order to keep the scale of the provision within limits that reflect the wider public health situation.

As noted in direct communication with some of you or your members, we are in no doubt that continuation of key waste collection, processing and disposal services is critical to keeping the country running – we are keen to help where you are encountering specific difficulties. We certainly would not be advising companies who play key roles within the sector to shut down operations until they have engaged with the relevant local authority and sought the help of the Scottish Government key worker team if required. The contact mailbox is keyworkers@gov.scot.

We will have a chance to discuss further at this afternoon’s sector forum telecon but if you have any initial queries ahead of that, or specific points you wish to raise in relation to this at the sector forum please let us know.

 

 

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