Clinical waste management: government disputes incineration claims

UK junior health minister Steve Barclay refuted claims yesterday that clinical waste management services did not have the incineration capacity to serve NHS trusts.

In the wake of the revelation that Healthcare Environmental Services (HES), a clinical waste management company contracted to the NHS, had been stockpiling waste from hospitals instead of following the correct disposal procedures, Barclay denied reports of insufficient incineration capacity available to the NHS and accused the company of refusing to pay for waste disposal.

In response to a request from shadow Health Secretary John Ashworth to “correct the record” on clinical waste management capacity, Barclay said 2,269 tonnes of incineration capacity were available for use in England in October, adding: “The issue is whether HES are willing to pay for that capacity.”

Since it was discovered earlier this month that HES had been stockpiling hospital waste, including amputated limbs, infectious liquids, cytotoxic waste and hazardous pharmaceutical waste, 17 NHS trusts have terminated their clinical waste management contracts with the beleaguered company. The contracts have been taken over by Mitie, an outsourcing firm.

Barclay said the NHS Improvement and Environment Agency had improved their due diligence protocols around clinical waste management since July, when they were first made aware of HES’s disposal problems. He said clinical waste backlogs had already been fully removed from three of the affected NHS Trust sites, with another 12 trusts scheduled to be cleared by the end of the week.

As part of the “contingency plan” to clear the backlog of stockpiled waste from hospitals, Mitie was able to secure an additional 1,000 tonnes of incineration capacity in the Yorkshire and Humber region. Barclay said the contingency measures, which included trusts temporarily storing excess waste until it could be removed, would continue until Mitie was able to run the original clinical waste management contracts “at 100 per cent”.