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Challenging healthcare waste ‘overbilling’ saves GPs almost £3 m
GPs in England have saved almost £3 m on their healthcare waste bills thanks to technology provided by leading independent healthcare waste management company, Anenta, the company says. Its real-time contract and waste management platform – responsible for managing over 450,000 scheduled and ‘on-demand’ waste collections annually, ‘identifies and flags discrepancies caused by mis- charged, duplicated, or incorrectly invoiced services issued by waste collection providers’. Enabling it to act on behalf of GPs and ICBs, ‘challenging invoices before they are paid’, the technology resulted in over 4,000 invoices being challenged in 2023 alone, reportedly saving the NHS over £1.3 m. Separately, Anenta says, over £1.69 m has been saved thanks to its work to recover over-billing linked to instances where historic contracts allowed waste collection providers to bill for more waste than they actually collected. Anenta explained: “Here, uplifts in sharps waste volume – resulting from ‘flu and COVID-19 jabs – set new weekly contract billing base
Pinpoint P2 alarm system protects staff at UK’s ‘first safe drug consumption’ unit
rates, which meant that over 100,000 bags and containers of waste were billed for, even though they were not produced by the GP surgeries or collected by the vendor. Our forensic approach to invoice validation identified the discrepancies, which were subsequently challenged, resulting in an agreement from the waste vendors to issue credit notes against the excess billing.” While rare, Anenta says ‘contract
billing ratcheting’ clauses can result in ‘wildly inflated charges’. One GP practice was billed for 52 sharps containers weekly, even though its sharps waste volume frequently dropped to just one container per week. This alone would have cost the
GP’s ICB an additional £998,000 over the course of the year, had it not been identified and addressed by Anenta. Graham Flynn, director at Anenta, commented: “Our waste management platform has been developed to analyse, examine, check, and scrutinise, every single billable item charged by waste collection providers. This process ensures that irregularities are quickly identified so that overbilling can be disputed by our team.”
Anenta currently acts on behalf of over 9,000 GPs, and 9,000 pharmacies, in England. It says it handled over 39,400 healthcare waste management queries in 2023.
National funding of £1.2 m provides boost
for rural coastal healthcare research rural and coastal areas.” Dr Scantlebury added: “Local community groups from Scarborough are helping to ensure that the research addresses issues that are important to people living in rural coastal communities. These communities are often diverse, and the researchers want to ensure the project helps and represents as many people as possible.” People living in Scarborough
Scarborough Hospital, in collaboration with academics from the Universities of Birmingham and York, has been awarded National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) monies to fund research to establish how urgent and emergency care could be improved for patients living in rural coastal areas. The study is being jointly led by
Dr Arabella Scantlebury (pictured) of the University of Birmingham and Professor Joy Adamson of the University of York. The Research and Innovation Department at York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will support the project. Previously, the project partners
say, the way health and care services have been designed was based on guidance developed for the whole country, despite demand
for services often being worse in rural and coastal areas. For example, coastal emergency departments can face overcrowding in summer due to high numbers of holiday-makers. They said: “People living in rural coastal areas have poorer health and a lower life expectancy than those living in urban areas. This new study will determine how the NHS can best deliver emergency care in
18 Health Estate Journal March 2025
provided support to the funding bid by providing feedback, and community groups – such as Age UK (North Yorkshire Coast and Moors) and SeeCHANGE – a cross-sector partnership which campaigns for a healthier Scarborough – continue to engage with researchers. The study’s findings will ‘inform national and international decision- makers on how best to provide urgent emergency care’.
Pinpoint, a leading UK provider of staff alarm systems to high-risk workplaces, has seen its P2 System installed in what is reportedly the UK’s first safe drug consumption facility, The Thistle, at the Hunter Street Health and Care Centre in Glasgow. The facility opened its doors
on 13 January ‘to provide a clean, safe space for the public to use drugs safely under clinical supervision’. It also provides drug users with access to a wide range of treatment and support. Pinpoint’s P2 Staff Attack
System was chosen as the preferred staff safety alarm system to ensure the swift delivery of assistance in high-risk situations. Access to the system ensures that help can be summoned quickly. Staff at The Thistle will be given a personal alarm, or P2 PIT, at the start of each shift, which can be activated if required with the simple press of a button. Once
activated, the P2 PIT
communicates with receivers located throughout the building, which in turn notify display devices of the exact location and severity of the alarm call. Pinpoint CEO, Daniel Waring, said: “Pinpoint is proud to be part of this UK first Safer Drug Consumption Facility. Having worked with The Hunter Street Health Centre, where The Thistle is based, since 2003, we are well aware of the challenges staff may face in their day-to-day duties. “The P2 System, chosen for
its precision, reliability, and durability, will ensure that staff can access a response when they need it most, allowing them to carry out their duties without fear, and provide the highest quality of care.”
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