13 May 2005
The cost of clinical waste disposal by NHS hospitals in Scotland could be reduced by £1.3m if the waste was handled properly, Audit Scotland has claimed.
In a report published this week, the spending watchdog says that NHS boards and hospitals are still not managing hospital waste as well as they could. In particular, they need to increase recycling and ensure they sort and store all waste properly.
Audit Scotland highlighted instances at 15 of the 53 hospitals in its sample survey where clinical waste was not secure from public access.
The report also notes that, despite efforts to improve waste segregation, more than a quarter of that disposed of in the costlier clinical waste stream was domestic waste, at an additional cost of £1.3m a year.
Audit Scotland found that almost two-thirds of hospitals in the survey do not have a hospital-wide paper recycling scheme.
Deputy auditor general Caroline Gardner said it was encouraging that progress has been made in managing hospital waste but added that much more needed to be done.
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