Body parts landfill bid as crisis deepens over hospital waste
PLANS to send body parts to landfill have been discussed amid a growing clinical waste crisis, say NHS sources.
Scottish firm Healthcare Environmental Services (HES) is subject to a criminal investigation over stockpiling medical waste.
Instead of burning the material – including amputated limbs and cancer treatment waste – it has been storing it at six sites in Scotland and England.
But the Mail can reveal meetings have been held where the possibility of dumping body parts at landfill sites was discussed, although not acted on.
An NHS source said: ‘The idea of relaxing regulatory requirements to allow anatomical waste to be sent to landfill has been discussed – it is an idea that has caused concern within the NHS and would doubtless cause anxiety and concern among the wider public.’
The Mail can also reveal that HES warned on Friday that it could no longer ‘guarantee’ collection of clinical waste – before apparently backtracking and insisting that it could, according to an NHS boss.
Last night, Scottish Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘At the very least, the communication between NHS Scotland and HES seems garbled.
‘There needs to be immediate clarity on whether our health boards can expect vital collections to continue.’
Chief executive of NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) Colin Sinclair wrote to hospitals on Friday about the ‘current challenges’. He said: ‘The situation is changing at short notice but we are working very closely with clinical waste managers, [the] Scottish Government and other parties to try to ensure either continuity of the current service or the implementation of contingency [plans] if required.
‘Healthcare Environmental Services Ltd, your contractor for removal and disposal of clinical waste, did intimate earlier today [Friday last week] that they could no longer guarantee collections from NHS Scotland boards but subsequent correspondence has suggested this may not be the case.’
Mr Sinclair said the Scottish Government had ‘instructed NSS to conduct contingency planning on behalf of NHS Scotland, working with other agenmenting cies’. The plans ‘will ensure, in the event of disruption to waste management services, there is sufficient storage capacity for clinical waste to be stored safely on site for a period of 72 hours’.
The Mail has been told the plans involve storing the waste in trailers at hospitals – with body parts bagged and put in mortuaries.
Last night, HES told the Mail that it ‘would never send [anatomical waste] to landfill’. Com- on Mr Sinclair’s letter, an HES spokesman said: ‘We have never said we can’t guarantee collections from NHS Scotland. However, we did inform them that collections might be later than usual.’
In a letter which came to light last week, HES boss Garry Pettigrew claimed his firm, based in Shotts, Lanarkshire, had been targeted by ‘various government agencies’ and was the victim of a ‘witch-hunt’.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Clinical waste collection continues as normal for NHS Scotland. In the event of disruption… all NHS Scotland boards have contingency plans ready to put into place. The plans ensure there is sufficient storage capacity for clinical waste to be stored safely on site for a period of 72 hours.
‘Emergency waste management arrangements will be procured centrally in order to protect waste management services for the NHS across Scotland following the 72-hour period.
‘NHS Scotland, working with SEPA, has developed contingency plans which firmly maintain environmental protections. There are no plans to relax regulations to dispose of clinical waste.’
Body parts stockpiled in secret by NHS f irm Mail, October 5, 2018 ‘Communication seems garbled’