Clinical waste is that which could be hazardous, such as used dressings and needles and anything that might contain human tissue, blood or drugs.

Clinical waste collections

Either the GP practice itself or the area team will have a contract with a waste management company, who will make regular collections of any clinical waste from the practice.

There are provisions under paragraph 46 of the Premises Costs Directions 2013 for practices to apply to their area team to reimburse the cost of collections.

Pre-acceptance checks and audits

A waste management contractor will dispose of a practice’s clinical waste through incineration or at a treatment plant. These facilities are required to get detailed information from GP practices on what the waste is before they accept it. This is part of their ‘pre-acceptance checks’.

GP practices must provide audits of their waste to their contractors to have their waste accepted. Failure to provide an audit report could result in the EA stopping waste collection.

The practice can either collect the data itself or employ a third party to do so. The waste management contractor may offer to complete the audit for the practice but may charge.

GPC has produced a self-audit tool to aid practices in collecting the data.

Your obligations

• GP practices are classified as ‘low risk’ and must complete the audit every five years. 

• The practice does not have to provide information by completing the waste contractor’s template or pay a charge.

• Although the legal duty for the pre-acceptance checks lies with the waste disposal facility, under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, all producers have a ‘duty of care’ when dealing with clinical waste and ensuring disposal is safe.

• It is advisable that practices complete the audit when requested by their clinical waste collection company.

Disposal of patient-generated sharps bins

GP practices are not generally responsible for accepting or disposing of sharps bins returned by patients. Sharps used by patients in their own homes are typically classified as domestic clinical waste, and arrangements for collection and disposal are usually the responsibility of the local authority. Practices should signpost patients to their local council for advice on sharps bin collection and disposal services. Practices should only accept returned sharps where a locally commissioned or resourced sharps disposal service is in place.

Colour codes for sharp boxes

Although colour coding itself is not mandatory, it is used to help producers identify and segregate their waste, which is mandatory. So you must segregate your waste and provide your waste contractor with the necessary information to ensure they can manage it appropriately.

GOV.UK - disposal of healthcare waste

European waste catalogue codes

The European waste catalogue is an EU-standard method of classifying waste.

Along with a written description of the waste, you must let your waste contractor know the relevant codes for each the different types of the waste of which you are disposing. If you are using the self audit toolkit above, you will see that the codes of each type of waste are already given in the right hand column.