Harbour House raises concerns after waiting two weeks for clinical waste removal.

The West Bay care home is still waiting for their bins to be emptied by contractor PHS, with managers desperately trying to find out how this has happened and to get the situation resolved.

The registered manager at the care home, said: “We contract them [PHS] to remove our clinical waste, which is waste which may cause infection to any person who comes into contact with it.

“This is something that we take very seriously and recognise that clinical and offensive waste is hazardous to everyone in Harbour House and in our local community.

Important message on this bin, but not so easy to comply

“West Bay is a bustling seaside town and our clinical waste bin is currently overflowing with waste that should have been collected over two weeks ago.

“Although our waste bins are undercover, it is very difficult to keep seagulls away from them if the lids are unable to close, and you can image the risk attached when they get into clinical waste bags.”

Numerous calls have been made by staff to PHS, asking when the rubbish will be collected and they were assured they would receive a call back, which has not yet happened.

One of the managers continued to call this week and were finally told by PHS that they hope to empty the bins on Friday (November 23) at the earliest, however they only currently have one driver and one relief driver, but only had a small van and would not be able to take away all of the waste.

Amy added: “We have had to empty clinical waste ourselves and place it into non-clinical waste bins – this is a highly inappropriate action.

“We have now got to the point where both the clinical bin and the non-clinical bin we are having to use as a back up, are both overflowing.

“We are currently sourcing an alternative clinical waste firm to remove the overflow as a matter of urgency to protect residents, staff and the general public at significant cost.

“PHS has charged us £1,756.55 to May 2019, which we paid in full in May 2018, for services which are not safe and leave us in a position where we are not practicing infection control to the high standards that we promise.”

PHS were unable to comment.