Urology colleagues join forces with facilities team to support 'Boys need Bins' campaign for Prostate Cancer patients
UHDB Urology and Facilities departments worked collaboratively to improve Trust facilities and be more inclusive for male patients with incontinence, enabling UHDB to become the second hospital Trust in the UK to back 'Boys need Bins', a national campaign to support men who have had prostate cancer or surgery.
The campaign, led by Prostate Cancer UK, aims to ensure that men have access to bins in public locations to dispose of sanitary items following surgery.
After seeing a post on social media from the charity, a colleague from the Urology team visited Parliament to find out more about the campaign and how it can benefit patients before enlisting the help of the Facilities team to consider how the scheme could be trialled at UHDB.
Sam Muter, Urology Clinical Nurse Specialist, said: "When men have prostate problems or have had prostate surgery, they will undergo changes both physically and mentally and as a result may be incontinent either temporarily or permanently.
"We started looking at what facilities were in men's toilets, and we found that a lot of men who used sanitary pads and catheters were unable to dispose of those properly, not just at our Trust but in many public places.
"Sadly, we know some men would have to carry their used pads with them until they found somewhere to dispose of it properly and that is not something we want them to have to deal with, especially when there is a clear solution."
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men and one in eight men will be diagnosed with the disease, which increases to one in four for Black men. As many as 60% of those treated with surgery may experience urinary incontinence as a result, which can cause anxiety and worry when managing that when out in public.
Tom Richardson, Facilities Operations Manager, pledged to support the initiative and worked with the organisation's waste contractor to ensure that his team is able to segregate waste properly and responsibly if bins could be provided in male toilets for disposal of sanitary items.
Tom said: "After working with our waste contractor to ensure that we can segregate and dispose of the waste properly, we put offensive waste bins, which can offer disposal for sanitary products, alongside other waste, in male toilets in outpatient areas and in the Kings Treatment Centre. We wanted to make sure people knew the purpose of the bins, so we shared posters in those areas to encourage men to use them. It is a simple change that can make a massive difference to our patients."
Since implementing the trial in August 2024, the team has received positive feedback from patients and have been approached by other trusts locally who wish to replicate the initiative.
Sam is hopeful that she can inspire other businesses and organisations to adopt the changes and expand the rollout across the whole of UHDB. This is a key part of improving the experiences of prostate cancer patients at UHDB, but also paving the way for other Trusts and organisations to be more inclusive of the diverse needs of our local population.
She said: "Post prostate cancer surgery, some of these men are using four or five pads a day and even more if they've got active jobs. If they're at work those pads can be quite heavy and they're then putting them in their bag to take them home because they don’t have the facilities to dispose of them properly which is really sad, so I am hoping this will spark some conversation and encourage other employers to lead the way and help make a difference."