Towering piles of clinical waste almost touch the ceiling at a plant run by the company at the centre of the NHS body parts scandal. ...
Towering piles of clinical waste almost touch the ceiling at a plant run by the company at the centre of the NHS body parts scandal.
A whistleblower took the disturbing images of the bags at Healthcare Environmental Services’ Tyneside plant over a period of 20 months.
He described an “unbearable” stench coming from the waste, which had been taken away from hospitals for incineration.
He said: “The situation did not improve over months. The backlog was just getting bigger all the time. There are bags of waste all over the shop, you would think that has to be a health risk.”
The revelations come after HES lost NHS contracts to dispose of hundreds of tonnes of waste.
The company, led by managing director Garry Pettigrew, allowed bags from hospitals to build up at three of its five disposal sites in Yorkshire, Newcastle and Nottingham.
They contained infectious waste and, it is claimed, “anatomical waste”, which includes body parts.
The whistleblower said orange contained high grade clinical waste, like swabs.
Yellow and black bags – nicknamed tiger bags – also contained hospital waste, our source said.
Those marked HT were full of highly toxic material and had to be handled with care.
The Tyneside plant takes clinical waste from hospitals across the North East and Cumbria.
Managing director Garry Pettigrew (pictured) is alleged to have allowed the waste to pile up After seeing the photos, the Environment Agency thanked the Mirror. A spokesman said: “HES has significantly and repeatedly breached its environmental permits by storing excess waste at a number of its sites.
“We have taken a range of action with the company but they have continued to operate unlawfully. As a result, we have launched a criminal investigation.”
Health Minister Stephen Barclay has told MPs that 15 NHS trusts had served termination notices to HES, which collects 584 tonnes of “incineration-only” waste and 1,972 of non- hazardous waste per month from NHS trusts.
HES said: “These images show waste stored securely in a dedicated waste facility prior to disposal. We refute these anonymous claims anatomical waste was handled incorrectly. It is disposed of as a priority. No body parts are stockpiled at any of our facilities.”
Set the place on fire, that will solve the problem.
ReplyDelete