Medicine Disposal

We have contractual agreement with Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust to accept unused, returned medication from patients and their representatives for safe disposal. However, in the terms of our agreement, we are well within our rights to refuse to accept waste medicines from nursing homes, or waste generated by healthcare providers.

However, disposal of waste medicines (including oral dosage forms, patches etc)from patients’ own homes, whether returned by them or by others on their behalf, is a contractual requirement.

Therefore, care staff returning waste medicines on behalf of a patient, are advised to clearly inform the pharmacy staff that this is the case. We also ask patients and/or their representatives returning medicines for disposal to clearly state whether their bags contains any controlled drugs ( as we need to record the amounts returned as part of pharmacy legal requirements), needles or sharps (for the safety of our team)