THE MOST SICKENING SCANDAL IN SCOTLAND
HUNDREDS of tons of clinical waste from hospitals – including amputated limbs – have been left piling up at a storage depot for almost a year.
The mess includes surgically removed organs and tumours, dressings soaked in body fluids and even animal carcasses, such as a dead chimpanzee sent from a zoo for disposal.
Healthcare Environmental Services Ltd (HES), a waste disposal firm based in Shotts, Lanarkshire, went into administration last December amid claims material was not being processed – and the overflowing debris has yet to be incinerated.
People living beside the facility complain of an appalling smell and say they are being overrun by ants and rats.
Moira Cunningham, 66, who lives in a cottage a few hundred yards away, said: ‘It’s affecting my health. I’ve stopped eating because I’ve not been enjoying it and have lost a stone and a half.
‘In the summer, when it was warm, we could smell it even more. It depends what way the wind is, sometimes it’s terrible.
‘We’ve had to put rat poison down but I’ve got show dogs and I’m really worried that if a rat drops the poison in the garden one of my dogs will get it.
‘It’s very concerning and I’m losing sleep because of it.
‘We get a lot of birds of prey and wildlife, too – if they pick up poison, or a rat that’s died because of it, they’ll die.
‘We’ve lived here for almost 30 years and only within the last year has there been rats. At one stage we had millions of ants at the back of the house on the roof.’
Labour MSP for Central Scotland Monica Lennon said: ‘There are people who have used the NHS and know there’s bags and bags of clinical waste, body parts and fluids lying on this abandoned site, in vehicles, in pallets lying out open, with birds of prey, rats and foxes in the mix. It’s undignified and disrespectful and needs sorted out.
‘It’s a disgrace this waste has not moved. We have residents who have been infested by rats and there are concerns about vermin and foxes. Could that have wider public health issues?
‘There is a process under way, which I appreciate, but apparently it takes time and I don’t think that’s good enough.’
When HES folded last year, 400 employees lost their jobs. One former worker said waste was not being incinerated and had been piling up long before the firm folded.
Since trading stopped, and the site was handed over to liquidators BDO, there has been no progress on clearing it.
The former worker said: ‘There was roadkill that never got incinerated and there was a chimpanzee from Edinburgh
Zoo. It was there until the last days we were in work.’
Edinburgh Zoo declined to comment on the chimp claims, but confirmed there was a contract with HES which included disposing of animal remains, and this stopped in mid-December.
A BDO spokesman confirmed the piles of waste had not been disposed of, saying: ‘Since our appointment as liquidators of HES we have worked closely with SEPA [the Scottish Environment Protection Agency] and EA [Environment Agency] to assess and confirm the situation.
‘SEPA and the EA have conducted regular inspections and are confident that there is no danger of contamination or risk to public safety.
‘In conjunction with the government agencies, we have agreed that it is inappropriate for the waste clear-up to be conducted under the auspices of the joint liquidators and administrators. This will be conducted by an approved provider once the sale of the business and the assets has been completed.’
Since the demise of HES, the NHS has spent millions on emergency measures to prevent stockpiling, and has since spent more than £15 million on a contingency plan to have clinical waste collected from their sites across the country.
‘Bags of waste, body parts and fluids’