Payments not made by the NHS to a clinical waste treatment company "should go to unpaid staff"

A call was made for payments made by the NHS to a bankrupt medical waste supplier to be redirected to workers laid off at no-wage Christmas.

The Herald on Sunday announced that health boards owed about £ 450,000 to Healthcare Environmental Services Limited (HES) and continued to pay the company after it stopped fulfilling its NHS clinical waste management contract.

HES ceased operations after being caught off guard by the NHS last year after storing medical waste, having laid off hundreds of workers in December.

Scottish Labor said the money should go to unpaid staff.

Monica Lennon called on the Scottish Government to "open the books" (Mark Runnacles / PA)

The party's health secretary, Monica Lennon, said: "It is appalling that the NHS has continued to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds to HES, while he knew that the company was not fulfilling its obligations. .

"The clinical waste scandal has exposed incompetence in the Scottish government and a health secretary who has failed to take control of the crisis.

"Any outstanding money should be paid into a workers' fund.

"Jeane Freeman has to open the books and reveal the real cost of the HES scandal for our NHS."

FSS were informed of a backlog of 250 to 300 tonnes of clinical waste and 10 tonnes of anatomical waste at Scottish HES sites in Dundee and Shotts, North Lanarkshire.

The company had previously denied claims that parts of the human body were part of the waste stored on its sites, but according to the environment agency, the company has kept the remains of NHS patients in non-medical units. refrigerated for more than six months.