The expired sanitizer was supplied to the province by the Public Health Agency of Canada, according to the Saskatchewan Health Authority.
By its own metrics, the Saskatchewan Health Authority is looking for someone to take more than a decade’s worth of sanitizer off its hands.
A Request for Proposals (RFP) document indicates that the folks who are in charge of delivering health care in the province are looking to offload some 559 pallets of hand sanitizer, which has expired.
An amendment document included on the SaskTenders website indicates the amount of expired sanitizer to be disposed of totals 354,574.5 litres.
For context, the SHA estimates all of its facilities combined use between 2,400 and 2,700 litres of hand sanitizer (4,000 to 4,500 600-millilitre bottles) per month. At the upper end of that range, SHA facilities would use an estimated 32,400 litres per year.
Using those metrics, the amount of hand sanitizer the SHA is looking to dispose of would, if it wasn’t expired, meets its facilities’ needs by volume for nearly 11 years.
Containers sitting on the pallets range in size from 3.8 litres to 50 millilitres.
The sanitizer, according to the SHA, was not purchased by the provincial government, but rather sent to the province by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, “particularly at the beginning of the pandemic when hand sanitizer was extremely hard to obtain.”
“While the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) very much appreciated the PHAC shipment, the SHA was able to source a more effective sanitizer supply in the interests of patient and public safety,” an email sent to the Leader-Post from the SHA states.
As Saskatchewan wrestled with the global COVID-19 pandemic, demand for sanitizer spiked with various public entities seeking massive amounts of the product.
Demand for sanitizer in the province throughout the pandemic was significant enough that in the Spring of 2020, Saskatchewan breweries and distilleries were beginning to produce it.
The SHA RFP notes that all the pallets of expired sanitizer are currently stored at an address on Park Street in Regina, and that the SHA “would like” them all to be removed before the end of January.
However, another amendment document states the SHA has extended its timeline for proposals until Jan. 13 at 2 p.m.
Regarding the potential cost of this endeavour, the RFP states: “The SHA is requesting fixed pricing for this recycling and or disposal of the expired hand sanitizer and proponents must include any regulatory charges, landfill charges, environmental charges, fuel surcharges etc. in their quotes.”
The SHA’s email states the estimated disposal cost is over $100,000.
“This estimate takes into account the required rules and regulations for disposal of a hazardous substance as this product is labelled as such.”
Citing a news story on the subject from another media source, a social account bearing the name of a Saskatoon doctor offered criticism toward the situation.
“This kind of waste drives me nuts,” reads a Twitter post dated Jan. 9 from an account bearing the name Dr. Adam Ogieglo.
A physician by that name is listed as being a partner at Saskatoon’s Lakeside Medical Clinic.
“Why didn’t SHA consult with clinics and distribute it to other non-SHA health facilities before it expired?” the poster asked.
— with files from former Postmedia reporters and Stephanie Taylor of the Canadian Press
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