Southport Visiter

Needles dumped by cafe

- BY KATE LALLY kate.lally@trinitymir­ror.com @katelallyx

THE owner of a Southport cafe has spoken of her horror at finding a bucket of needles dumped outside her premises.

Natalie Jaimeson-Morrison, who runs Town Gardens cafe on Lord Street, says she found the needles in her cafe bins.

She said: “I was so shocked that these were just there, open for anyone to find. Thank goodness no children got their hands on them.”

Natalie says she immediatel­y gave the needles, which were branded with labelling from Southport General District Hospital, to a family member who could safely incinerate them on his industrial yard.

She added: “It seems really dodgy to me, and I just can’t imagine any of my customers having the audacity to ditch them here.”

Gill Murphy, Deputy Director of Nursing, Midwifery and Governance at Southport Hospital, said: “We routinely provide patients with sharps bins if they are administer­ing low risk medication­s at home.

“Patients are advised of their responsibi­lity to dispose of these safely themselves, either via the local council or by returning them to the hospital. I am sorry this was not done in this instance. “A review of our systems and processes around the provision of sharps to patients in the community is under way following this incident.”

A spokesman for Sefton Council said: “If people do discover any discarded needles, please contact us immediatel­y. We will collect them and dispose of them properly.”

 ??  ?? The bucket of needles found outside Town Gardens cafe
The bucket of needles found outside Town Gardens cafe
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