Medical waste bill soars after company’s collapse

TAXPAYERS are being charged more than twice as much for medical waste to be removed from hospitals after the collapse of a disposal firm, figures show.

Contractors are collecting more than £460,000 per week to dispose of hazardous materials in Scotland following the demise of Healthcare Environmental Services (HES), according to a Freedom of Information request.

HES removed waste from every hospital, GP surgery, dental practice and pharmacy in Scotland, as well as 15 NHS trusts in Yorkshire.

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 said the company charged a maximum of £11m per year – around £211,500 per week. He has maintained the build-up was because of a lack of incineration capacity in the country.

Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University, is now calling for an inquiry.

Prof Pennington, who led the inquiry into the 1996 E Coli outbreak in Lanarkshire, said: “If what I’ve been told is true people are being put unnecessarily at a greater risk than they should be.”

Under contingency arrangements, figures show around £7m was spent in just 15 weeks.

Some £4.8m was spent on “operational and logistics” costs and £2.2m on “disposal” between December 5 and March 20, according to a figures from National Services Scotland.

The new waste disposal contract for Scotland has been awarded to Tradebe Healthcare National and is due to commence on August 2.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The Scottish Government provided £1.4m towards initial planning and once the contingency period ends the exact cost of these arrangements can be finalised.

“All agreed contingency measures ensure that the environment and human health are appropriately protected.”