Waste disposal strategy
cheap, which is why the Betts model makes such a refreshing change. The customer needn’t find any budget at all – in the worst case scenario the service works out cost-neutral. All of this may seem implausible, but a
closer look at the waste management sector reveals a turning tide towards recognising waste as a ‘resource’. Preserving precious materials that are dwindling in the UK is an important priority for anyone involved in the management of materials. The end game is a sustainable society with a ‘closed loop’ economy, meaning that new recovery services such as this are showing a lot of promise. So, what type of volumes precious
metals could an organisation such as a large acute NHS Trust be inadvertently paying to dispose of? Silver, in fact, has a surprisingly wide range of uses, from utilisation in deodorant production, to use in X-ray film used to identify faults in high specification engineering designs. Its applications span a number of industries, from paint and battery manufacture, through medicine, to aerospace engineering. Last year, the NHS spent £26 m on silver-bearing wound dressings alone – and yet only a tiny amount of that silver, if any, will have been recovered.
Procurement Traditionally, the majority of X-ray destruction requirements will have been the responsibility of the manager of a hospital’s Radiography Department, with this senior staff member likely to have used the same destruction contractor to dispose of X-rays for years, often without auditing the external company’s processes or capabilities. As operational and procurement requirements become stricter and more streamlined, however, Trusts and other healthcare provider organisations may find that these contractors are no longer fully compliant with the law. Gone are the days where a sole operator turned up in his white van, and took a hospital’s X-rays away, without leaving a clear audit trail for the material removed.
NHS storage facilities are likely to contain large volumes of medical X-ray film which have passed the legal retention period.
Data protection requirements now
stipulate how ‘Confidential Data’ should be handled, and also highlight the importance of auditing any contractors involved in the process. As procurement processes become more defined, NHS Trust procurement teams need to start demanding a more robust auditing method. This will help to ensure that Trusts are appointing contractors that provide a full ‘cradle to grave’ solution, while simultaneously ensuring that the chain of custody is never broken by the use of ‘third party contractors’.
Green channels By introducing robust auditing, NHS Trusts will be able to clearly identify ‘green’ channels for confidential X-ray destruction that are utilised by companies solely here in the UK without the need for offshore shipping and processing. By identifying these ‘Green Channel Destruction Partners’. Trusts will be able to procure a fully compliant data destruction service that not only provides a secure solution, but also one delivering a 100% fully recyclable cradle-to-grave model. Senior NHS Trust personnel
responsible for waste collection and disposal should ensure that all service providers – including third-party contractors – are fully certified. Confidentiality is also key; at Betts, for example, we process all materials at our own facility, and recover the small amounts of silver contained in X-ray film. The market value of the sliver is then returned to the Trust as a rebate, and so the destruction service effectively pays for itself.
With many NHS Trusts now digitising their X-ray imaging, a considerable number will have large quantities of ‘old’ conventional X-ray films to dispose of.
78 Health Estate Journal September 2013
Assurance of destruction One Trust that recently took advantage of this service is the Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Rachel Turner, senior contractsmanager at the Doncaster Royal Infirmary, said: “As one of the first healthcare organisations to appoint a dedicated wastemanager, responsible for minimising waste and complying with legislation, we were aware of our legal requirements regarding X-rays. “As part of our Carbon Management
Strategy, we also wanted to take great care to ensure that 100 per cent of the material would be recycled. As Betts manages the whole process, and recycles the materials at its own facility inWorcestershire, we had complete confidence in the integrity of the service, and that it would ensure compliance for us with the Data Protection Act.” Malcolm Greenwood, general manager
for Medical Imaging at the Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, agreed, adding: “Betts Envirometal made compliance easy for us, and receiving a rebate for the recovered silver was a great plus for the Trust.”
A detailed process The detailed process that Betts Envirometal undertakes for its hospital NHS Trust clients is outlined below. Such an in-depth process can help any such NHS organisation identify the capabilities of the destruction contractor that it appoints: Betts collects the material using its own CRB-checked permanent staff (we do not use third party agency staff).
We only use our own vehicles to undertake collection of material; all of
Senior NHS Trust personnel responsible for waste disposal should ensure that all service providers – including third-party contractors – are fully certified
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