In an astonishing piece of advertising spin SRCL Limited have announced a 5-year integrated clinical waste management contract awarded by the Isle of Wight NHS Trust commencing 1st April 2014.
The waste management contract is described as “unique”.
Unique? Perhaps that has something to do with the contract start date?
The scope of this contract is unique because it will see SRCL, a specialist healthcare services organisation, collect, transport and treat clinical waste not only for the Island’s hospital, but also all 24 GP surgeries, 41 community pharmacies, NHS community clinics, and home patients treated by NHS community nurses and self-treated.
The Isle of Wight NHS Trust is the only integrated acute, community, mental health and ambulance health care provider in England. St Mary’s Hospital in Newport is the Trust’s main healthcare hub and it also operates a range of community clinics throughout the island.
Pete Siviter, District Sales and Marketing Manager at SRCL commented:
“Collecting waste from small producers in the community can be a logistical challenge especially as clinical waste from the island can only be transported to the mainland at night on non-passengers crossings. This is due to restrictions imposed by the ferry operators. The Trust holds a licence from the Environment Agency to operate St Mary’s clinical waste station as a transfer station, and this was the key in bringing an innovative solution to this challenge.
“By using St Mary’s clinical waste transfer station, SRCL is able to operate a small collection vehicle permanently based on the Island, bringing waste from the community to St Mary’s for bulking. In turn this waste is collected by a heavy goods vehicle, alongside the larger volumes produced by the Hospital. This removes the need for the community vehicle to travel back and forth to the waste’s final destination, and makes most of the extra capacity available on the larger vehicle. As a result significant carbon savings are made and the environmental impacts of the operation are reduced.”
If the island’s NHS managers are happy and waste is managed safety and in an efficient cost-effective manner, then all is well. But to promote a man and a van as “UNIQUE” surely takes the biscuit!
And as it happens it’s a model proposed, successfully in several situations, by Blenkharn Environmental specifically for several island and remote communities, and for Ambulance Trusts, over the past 15 years. So, there you have it. We’re unique too, and more unique than you!