Law change could stop safe disposal of medicines
Planned changes to waste management regulations mean that community pharmacies might be forced to stop accepting unwanted medicines from patients for safe disposal.
Both the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the Pharmaceutical Services
Negotiating Committee have warned the Department for Environment Food
and Rural Affairs that removing an exemption from restrictions on storing
hazardous waste at pharmacies will have this effect.
European law requires places where hazardous waste — which includes
returned cytotoxic drugs — is stored to be licensed unless the
waste is to be recycled. The European Commission recently won a case
against the UK in the European Court because it had not properly implemented
the law.
Removal of the exemption means that pharmacies will have to apply for
waste licences if they are to continue to collect all unwanted medicines.
The Society and the PSNC are concerned, too, that the planned regulations
mean that pharmacies would also need waste carriers’ licences if
they are to remove unwanted medicines when they visit patients’ homes
or nursing homes. The current regulations also include this requirement,
but it is ignored, so the Society and the PSNC say that it should be
removed.
A third area of concern is waste sharps. Under both the current regulations
and the planned new ones, pharmacies are not allowed to store waste sharps
unless they hold a hazardous waste licence. But Environment Agency guidance
says that such storage is a low-risk activity and that pharmacies need
not apply for licences. Both the PSNC and the Society want the law to
be changed to
reflect this. |
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