Decision to change bedpans adding pollution, waste to the landfill
By Lethbridge Herald on November 22, 2024.
Editor:
During a recent trip to the Chinook Regional Hospital I needed to make use of a bedpan, and discovered some changes have been made which I want to address. Previous bedpans, which were blue in colour, were smaller, more comfortable and after use, the contents were flushed down the toilet and the pan was washed out and sterilized. The new bedpans are broader and deeper and uncomfortable to sit on. The base of the bedpans have several holes the size of a quarter in the bottom of the pans, requiring a thick plastic liner/bag for every use.
Apparently some of the older bedpans had been retained for a time in order to collect urine samples as they were easy to use and to sterilize. Now that those are gone, if a sterile urine sample is required, a catheter often has to be used. We are filling our landfill, not only with the old blue bed pans, but by hundreds of plastic bags weekly, with fecal matter in them. This decision is both a waste of money and is adding plastic waste and pollution to our landfills.
Jill Skriver
Lethbridge
6-5
thanks for sharing a concern. might anyone at the hospital be able to explain why the change over? that one would need a catheter for what is otherwise an easy urine sample is ridiculous. as shared by jill, this seems an awful decision any way one looks at it.