Written question WQ94424
- Asked by
- Andrew RT DaviesConservative
- To be answered by
- Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
- Tabled
- Due
- Answered
- Time to answer
- 3 days
Question
What is the method and regularity of the Cabinet Secretary's checks on healthcare waste in Wales?
Answer
Answered by Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Healthcare waste in Wales in highly regulated by Natural Resources Wales. Guidance is issued to NHS organisations in the form of Welsh Health Technical Memorandum. Health Boards are the statutory body responsible for the safe management and operation of its healthcare waste and any regulatory impact would fall on them.
If there any issues with healthcare waste this would be raised with officials in the first instance. I would only be briefed if there is a significant problem. For example, during COVID where specific guidance was issued from Welsh Government and PHW for dealing with the healthcare waste produced.
Health Boards submit data to NHS Shared Service Partnership-Specialist Estate Services (NWSSP-SES) on an annual basis with the previous year’s information. The Estates Facilities Performance System data covers all estates and facilities areas. This includes detailed data on the waste that is produced, collected and disposed of at each hospital in the individual Health Board area.