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P-93 Identifying the scale of medicine destruction in a hospice inpatient unit

bmjspcare · 2025-11-21 · canonical JSON source

6 visible annotations · policy: published · automated confidence ≥ 75.00%

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Background 20% of the NHS carbon footprint plus is attributable to medicines, which remains true for acute and primary care when different settings are compared (NHS England. Delivering a ‘Net Zero’ National Health Service. London: NHSE; 2022). A large proportion of medicines waste in the Inpatient Unit is from destruction of medicines brought in by patients on admission. To understand how we can reduce or recycle this waste we first need to quantify how much is wasted and in what form. Recycling schemes exist for blister packaging, but currently this waste is going for incineration with energy recovery via clinical waste.Aims To quantify medicine waste within the Inpatient Unit to inform choice over blister pack recycling box procurement.Methods Using Medication for Destruction Records, data was collected on all medicines destroyed within the inpatient unit between July-Oct 2024. Number of tablets, cross referenced by medication with the BNF (and Google image search where necessary), were used to calculate number of blister packs. Where a range of pack sizes were found, the smallest number of blister packs was recorded.Results Total items wasted: 3061 (1500 ampoules, 955 blister packs, 315 sachets, 84 bottles, 88 patches, 40 nebules, 33 syringes, 18 inhalers, 15 tubes, 13 other). Nine entries were excluded as no quantities were documented.Conclusion The quantity of ampoules wasted was higher than blister packs, with these formulations together making 80% of the total waste. Tablet quantity was recorded rather than blister packs, as waste could vary depending on the manufacturer. Blister packs discarded through medicine administration to inpatients weren’t included, as they aren’t recorded as medicine destruction. These results are therefore likely to be an underestimate of total waste. Discussion is ongoing regarding procurement of blister pack recycling boxes, considering current waste streams and their impact on carbon footprint. A further project has been proposed to investigate ampoule waste.