HAZARDOUS waste from hospitals and clinics is on the rise, leaving a question mark over its safe disposal, according to an expert in the field.
Graham Flynn, whose company Anenta manages NHS waste, said the collapse of Scottish firm Healthcare Environmental Services (HES) had raised the issue of whether there is enough incinerator capacity in the UK for waste disposal. He said the firm’s demise was a long overdue “wake-up call” about the problem.
READ MORE: Waste from Scottish hospitals sent to Wales after HES collapse
“The fact that patient numbers are increasing year on year, and that some form of waste is generated during each clinical interaction, cannot be ignored,” he said. “The amount of waste will inevitably rise, and the issue of capacity will ultimately have to be resolved.”
Flynn added that the prices charged by incinerator operators since HES’s collapse also appeared “excessive”.
“It is unclear as to why the prices have gone up so much considering the actual cost of the disposal has not really increased,” he said.
His comments follow news that hospital waste will be sent from Scotland to Wales as part of a new deal set to cost taxpayers £100 million over 10 years.
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman confirmed “yellow bag” waste from hospitals, containing sharp materials such as syringes, will be sent 250 miles away to Wrexham in North Wales.
HES, which entered liquidation last month, had previously removed waste from every hospital, GP surgery, dental practice and pharmacy in Scotland, as well as a number of NHS trusts in England.
HES lost its contracts with 17 NHS trusts in England and NHS Scotland last year after it was found to have breached its permit levels for storing clinical waste.
At the time it was claimed body parts were piling up at its Yorkshire site – an allegation which was described as “nonsense” by former HES boss Garry Pettigrew.
Earlier this month it emerged contractors were charging more than £460,000 per week to dispose of hazardous materials in Scotland following the demise of HES.
READ MORE: Medical waste bill 'doubles' for taxpayers after HES collapse
That is more than double the amount Pettigrew had claimed his company charged, saying the maximum annual bill was £11m, which is around £211,500 per week.
Previously, in an exclusive interview with the Sunday National, Pettigrew predicted NHS Scotland would hit problems if his firm went under.
“If we go under there is nowhere for the NHS Scotland to take their waste,” he said. “We service all the hospitals, nursing homes, dentists, research labs and police authorities. The reality is they could not cope without our facilities.”
He claimed his award-winning business, which had operated for 23 years, was being victimised by the UK Government.
“It is a case of the UK Government meddling in a Scottish headquartered business,” he said.
He maintains that as far back as 2015, he had alerted the UK Government to problems with the country’s waste disposal facilities.
He said that instead of trying to solve the problem, the UK Government and its agencies were trying to put him out of business, costing the potential loss of the only UK hazardous waste facility built in the last 40 years by a British company.
“It’s the biggest Government cover-up that I have ever seen in my life,” Pettigrew said. “We have been advising since 2015 that the UK had a shortfall. In 2018 alone there was a 62% drop in incineration capacity because the ones that are out there are 40 years old.
“I want the truth rather than the nonsense that has been put out there. There was no capacity and there is still no capacity.”
Last week it was also revealed that the former workers at HES face losing thousands of pounds owed in holiday pay and overtime.
The staff had been told they would receive the payments by the end of this month but a letter from an insolvency agency said the company records did not hold enough information for them to release the rest of their cash.
HES ceased trading last December, prompting the loss of 150 jobs at its Shotts headquarters, with further redundancies across the UK. Lawyers said the workers could be owed more than £1m.
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