Reference/Features

Clinical Waste: Management and Legal Regulation

6 mins read CQC requirements Decontamination/HTM 01-05 Risk management
Dental practices have legal duties to ensure that their waste does not cause pollution or present a hazard to health. This article outlines the legislation on the management and disposal of waste and how it should be applied

Dental practices inevitably generate waste from the operation of the practice and treatment provided to patients. The European Union leads in regulating the management of waste and has compelled member states, including the UK, to introduce legislation to ensure that risks to public health and the environment from waste is minimised.

Waste management is regulated by a range of primary and secondary legislation (Box 1).

Breaching a requirement of the legislation regulating waste can result in sanction from the Care Quality Commission, investigation of individual dental care practitioners by the General Dental Council (GDC) and criminal prosecution.

A dental practice in Cheshire lost its NHS contract following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission that found overfilled and split bags of clinical waste stored near clean items, an X-ray machine in poor condition and no device installed to prevent amalgam from entering the water system (Care Quality Commission, 2011).

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