In these straitened times, it is becoming increasing common for hospitals to reduce the number of active wards, while elsewhere entire hospitals are being shut down as a cost-saving measure or, less often, to decant to a new purpose built facility.

What often happens when this happens is far from satisfactory. With often military precision, all items that are wanted for relocation are stripped out while other items are dashed to the floor with inevitable damage. Furniture items are left broken with movable items including bed frames, trolleys and other items upturned into a tangled pile. Among all this, part-filled clinical waste sacks are not uncommon, with more of these in utility areas, often sitting in carts as if to await a collection that will never happen.

Not so much a ghost town, but a ghost town suffering extensive damage as in the aftermath of a riot!

Why it should happen this was is something of a mystery. For sure, it the press were to pick up the story there would be damming headlines about the waste of money and callous disregard for taxpayer money.

Much equipment could be re-used by those less fortunate and not in a position to cast aside perfectly usable items.

And the clinical waste, together with other contaminated equipment and installations?  When the demolition or renovation teams move in for a hard strip, concerns will be raised and questions asked about the safety of bedpan washers and macerators, sterilisers, HEPA filters in ducting systems for isolation rooms and laboratories, drains in laboratories and mortuary, and other possibly contaminated fixed equipment items. The presence of uncollected waste sacks including much clinical waste will raise these concerns and can result in works staff refusing to continue until the site has been managed properly and all necessary interventions taken to permit clearance certificates to be issued. The sight of a sharps bin will stop work in an instant, as builders become rightly concerned for their own health and safety and the real risk of sharps injury.

It has happened repeatedly, and Blenkharn Environmental has been asked to manage several ward block and whole hospital closures. It has been reported from America also and seems to be a universal problem, in this US case complicated by the finding of discarded patient case files also.

Why do we do this so badly?