Taxpayer’s £24m bill for hospitals waste firm collapse as costs double
Taxpayers are being charged more than twice as much for medical waste to be removed from hospitals after the collapse of a scandal-hit firm, figures show.
Contractors are collecting more than £460,000 per week, or £23.92 million p er year, to dispose of the hazardous materials in Scotland following the demise of Healthcare Environmental Services (HES), according to a Freedom of Information request.
HES, which entered liqui - dation last month, removed waste from every hospital, GP surgery, dental practice and pharmacy in Scotland, as well as a number of NHS trusts in England.
It stopped collections in early December after too much waste–including human body parts – built up at its sites.
Former HES boss Garry Pettigrew has claimed the company charged Scottish taxpayers a maximum of £11m per year – around £211,500 per week.
Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University, is now calling for an inquiry.
He expressed concerns about both safety risks and the value for money under the current contingency plans.
Prof Penning ton, who led the inquiry into the 1996 E Coli outbreak in Wishaw, Lanarkshire, said :“Waste is being generated 24/7 and has to be got rid of, safely as well.
“If what I’ve been told is true people are being put unnecessarily at a greater risk than they should be.” He went on: “If there is a doubling of the cost, well, that’s something else an inquiry should look at, you know, ‘ what the bloody hell’s going on here?’
“I don’ t know where the waste is going but I think there are great piles of it somewhere and that’s a bad thing.”
Recent footage appears to show diggers tipping dozens of bags of medical waste into shipping containers and there are reports of waste now being moved around hospitals in open-sided containers “which could potentially expose those who are moving them to needle -stick injuries”, Prof Pennington said.
HE S stopped trading in December and laid off hundreds of workers after being found to have breached its permits by storing excess waste on its sites.
But Mr Pet ti grew has maintained the build-up was because of a lack of incineration capacity in the country.
He labelled the contingency a “shambles” which is “putting lives at risk” and said he welcomes a public inquiry into the collapse of the company which operated for 23 years.
Under contingency arrangements, figures show around £7 mw as spent in just 15 weeks – equivalent to around £465,000 per week.
Some£4.8mw as spent on “operational and logistics” costs and £2.2 mon“disposal” between 5 December and 20 March, according to a Free - dom of Information request of National Services Scotland (NSS) which provides services to NHS Scotland.
The new waste disposal contract for Scotland has been awarded to Trade be Healthcare National and is due to commence on 2 August.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said :“S cottish Environment Protection Agency (S epa) is continuing to monitor the operation of these arrangements and to date their inspections have not identified any risk to human health or the environment.
“N SS continues to work closely with NHS Health Boards, contractors, Se pa, and the Scottish Government to deliver robust contingency plans to ensure NHS Scotland services to the public are maintained and patient services are not impacted.”