WASTE LEFT IN PILES AT HEALTH UNIT
Messy fallout of HES scandal continues
BY SALLY HIND s.hind@dailyrecord.co.uk
IMAGES have emerged showing piles of clinical waste at a medical centre just weeks after a scandal-hit disposal firm made all of their workers redundant.
Bags of potentially harmful rubbish discarded by medics were stacked almost to the ceiling at Coatbridge Health Centre.
It’s understood the bags were uplifted shortly after the photos were taken on Friday.
A source said: “That was waste dating back to the start of December. This is a nationwide problem – not just in Coatbridge.”
Healthcare Environmental Services (HES) ceased trading and made more than 350 staff redundant two days after Christmas.
The firm, based at Shotts in Lanarkshire, lost NHS contracts across the UK after watchdogs found they had let unacceptable amounts of waste – thought to include body parts and surgical material – build up at some sites.
HES claim they had previously tried to warn the Government of a lack of incineration capacity.
An Environment Agency spokesman said: “In addition to our enforcement activity to clear the sites, we are undertaking a criminal investigation.”
John Paterson, director of NHS Lanarkshire’s property and support services division, said: “We have an agreed interim process in place to ensure that clinical waste is uplifted as and when required while the national contract is resolved.”
He admitted there was a delay in uplifts at three centres but said the waste had been removed now.
He added: “This was lowlevel clinical waste. There was no risk to public health.”