Trouble disposing of sharps bins
*List updated as of late 2018*
For people with Diabetes in Kirklees
For a list of GPs and pharmacies in Kirklees who will dispose of sharps bins, click here for
Surgeries
Pharmacies
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In Kirklees where you can dispose of sharps box bins easily.
After being approached by a group of parents and carers of children and young people with diabetes in North Kirklees, it became clear that people who attend the group are struggling to dispose of their sharps bins (needle bins) in a safe way.
Up until 2 years ago, they were able to exchange full sharps bins for empty ones when they saw the diabetic nurse, however, this service was withdrawn, and they were told to contact Kirklees Council, who provide a sharps bin collection service from people’s houses. This service is designed for patients who are housebound, and access to this is now very restricted.
For some people, their local GP or pharmacy will dispose of full bins, but this isn’t the case across the board. Healthwatch Kirklees have completed a survey with GP surgeries to understand where you can dispose of full sharps bins in this area, and to understand why GP surgeries might be choosing not to offer this service to their patients.
Part of our aim is to give individuals with diabetes and their carers a clear picture of where you can go to dispose of sharps. As such, we have developed a list of GP surgeries that have told us they will dispose of sharps for their own patients. NHS England have developed a list of pharmacies that will dispose of sharps bins for patients. We have combined both of these lists and you can download that as one document through the link at the top of this page.
Healthwatch Kirklees have written a report summarising the findings of this research which has been shared with North Kirklees Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS England to share feedback. Through enhancing their understanding of the perspectives, we hope that they will be able to better support GPs and pharmacies to continue to offer the sharps bin disposal service. To read the report, please click here. Please contact Helen Wright to discuss this further.
