Workers at a Winnipeg clinic spent their Monday picking up used surgical supplies in a back alley, after several tubes, syringes and testing kits ended up scattered across the ground next to a garbage dumpster.
The medical waste – which was in the alley between Hargrave Street and Carlton Street downtown – was cleaned up by the team at the Women's Health Clinic.
Leigh Anne Caron, health services team manager at the clinic, said they group took care of the mess as soon as CTV News contacted the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.
She explained the garbage bin had been locked, but someone must have forgot to lock it.ctv
“We have a shared bin with about three or four other tenants, and this is something that happens sometimes – the lock goes missing, or it doesn't get locked,” Caron said.
The clinic has asked the building’s landlord to provide a garbage dumpster for just for them, so this does not happen again.
A spokesperson with the WRHA said patient confidentiality was not compromised, as no patient identifiers were attached to any of the material.
In a statement, the WRHA said the clinic is “compliant with Regional Infection Prevention and Control protocols regarding waste disposal, and its disposal procedures are in line with other medical clinics. Any material that is prohibited from regular garbage disposal is disposed of through an accredited medical waste collection process.”
The clinic is an out-of-hospital surgical site accredited through the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
