Body parts scandal firm ditched by NHS ..but not in Scotland
A SCOTTISH waste disposal firm which allowed body parts to pile up around the country has been stripped of its NHS contract in England – but not in Scotland.
The crisis came to light last week when Healthcare Environmental Services (HES) admitted it had failed to incinerate hundreds of tons of waste.
The company was struggling to meet contractual agreements with 15 NHS trusts in England and blamed old machinery which was prone to breaking down.
Yesterday UK Health Minister Steve Barclay announced that contracts with 15 English hospitals had been terminated and handed over to another firm, Mitie.
HES, based in Shotts, Lanarkshire, has contracts with another 45 health trusts in England which are expected to be ended as soon as another firm can be found to take them on. But HES retains the Scotlandwide contract and clinical waste collections were going ahead as normal yesterday.
This is despite an NHS boss claiming last week that the firm had warned it could no longer ‘guarantee’ clinical waste pickups. HES admitted it had warned of late collections.
The Mail also revealed that the idea of landfilling anatomical waste had been discussed as part of contingency planning in Scotland, but not acted upon.
Last night, Scottish Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘Given that HES has been unable to fulfil its contractual obligations and, as it has been stripped of its contracts in England, questions must now be asked as to how it will be able to meet its Scottish contracts, and what action SNP ministers will take to seek these assurances.
‘The primary concern is public safety. By stockpiling waste this company is clearly not able to guarantee this, and SNP ministers must act urgently.’
As the row grew south of the Border, Labour said that ‘serious questions remain’ as to why the UK Government had allowed the waste to build up and why the NHS did not intervene earlier.
The firm said last week it did not have the capacity to meet the demand. Its managing director, Gary Pettigrew, blamed old machinery and said he had repeatedly warned the Environment Agency.
In a statement to the Commons yesterday, Mr Barclay said the firm had not managed to provide evidence it was acting within its ‘contractual limits’. Labour’s health spokesman Jonathan Ashworth said the Government should have told the public when it became aware of the problem in July.
He said: ‘Serious questions remain. Why was this backlog allowed to build up, why didn’t the NHS intervene earlier – and we still don’t have any credible reassurances that contracts with private operators will be monitored thoroughly in future so something like this never happens again.’
The Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, blamed ‘commercial sensitivities’ for not making an announcement earlier.
He added: ‘I can reassure everybody that at no point there was any risk to the public. The waste is now being removed effectively.’
Last night, Mr Pettigrew said: ‘As we have stressed since the outset, there is a proven lack of incineration capacity within the UK, which is affecting all operators.
‘The decision of 15 NHS trusts to serve us termination notices is excessive, counter-productive and will only cause further issues. We are discussing next steps with our legal advisers.’
Body parts stockpiled in secret by NHS f irm Mail, October 5 ‘SNP ministers must act urgently’