Barbados Today : QEH Seeking to Replace Incinerator

Reprinted from Barbados Today , July 30th, 2020

An old malfunctioning incinerator at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) was at the centre of the spill of a number of vials containing blood, at the James A Tudor round-about today.

The blood was being transported by a private waste hauler to another government incinerator when it slipped off the vehicle. This led to police closing Hall’s Road, St Michael to vehicular traffic pending removal of the waste material which was done soon after by the same company. The company also sanitized the area where the spillage took place.

Speaking subsequently to Barbados TODAY, QEH Executive Chairman of the Juliette Bynoe-Sutherland said the incinerator at the QEH had been repaired in 2018 but had been given about two more years to remain operable.

“We are in this position of having to transport waste, but it is much extraordinary. Most hospitals as we do have some form of incineration or internal waste management. In our case, we incinerate medical waste and biomedical waste at the facility. However, our incinerator is 28 years old. We have attempted to extend the life of our incinerator at least four times, an incinerator usually has a shelf life of about ten to 15 years and certainly what we have been doing is working as assiduously as we can to extend the life of our incinerator.

For the complete article, visit https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/07/30/qeh-seeking-to-replace-aging-incinerator/