St George's Healthcare NHS Trust

St George's Healthcare NHS Trust was established in 1993 and is one of the largest in the UK. It is an acute services Trust with 1156 beds and 1720 nursing staff. The Trust comprises St George's Hospital in Tooting, Atkinson Morley's Hospital and the Wolfson Neurorehabilitation Centre in Wimbledon and Bolingbroke Hospital in Wandsworth.

Polkacrest won the contract in July 2003 to manage the collection and disposal of between two and four tonnes of clinical waste per day. At the same time SITA, also part London Waste Group, retained the contract to deal with domestic waste, thereby enabling the company to deliver a true total waste management solution.

We are assisting St George's to improve the efficient disposal of the wide variety of wastes generated within the Trust's facilities and Polkacrest's consultative approach ensures the provision of ongoing advice and support to help the Trust meet its long term, sustainable waste disposal objectives.

A key element of this is the on-site Waste Advisory Manager, appointed specifically to take the lead on clinical waste disposal issues for the Trust. Tania Palk brings to the role very valuable expertise in the recycling industry, together with broad contract management experience and a personal motivation to minimise St Georges' impact on the environment.

Given the significance of the appointment, a representative from St George's attended
the final interview stage, from which Tania was selected.

Though the contract is still in its early stages, Polkacrest have moved quickly to address some specific issues facing the Trust and taken the first steps to put in place a long term strategic approach to the Trust's clinical waste requirements.

In addition Polkacrest is creating a waste management section for the Trust's intranet, formed a Waste Project Team and has embarked on a number of promotional and training activities to improve the delivery of waste management systems information.

Says Alex Marland, Polkacrest's Commercial Manager: " We are delighted to be working with St George's NHS Trust. We feel that by having a full time Waste Advisory Manager in place we can take an ongoing proactive approach to the assessment of the Trust's needs and move quickly to make improvements.

"This in-house role also enables us to develop close relationships at all levels of the Trust which is especially important as our role includes training Trust staff. It is our job to work with staff to show them how to use existing disposal systems thereby ensuring that specific categories of waste are correctly identified and dealt with appropriately.

"We will be judged on how our work contributes to the Trust improving efficiency, achieving targets and meetings standards in the way it deals with clinical waste".

Margaret Morrison, Deputy Director for Facilities and Site Services said:

"We are pleased to be working with Polkacrest in this vital area for the Trust.
If we are able to organise our waste management activities for maximum efficiency then the winners are the people who we care for because vital resources can be redirected over time into front line healthcare services. This means more beds, more nurses, reduced waiting times. I know that Polkacrest share our desire to make a real impact in this area and they are already making a valuable contribution in this regard."

[ Back to Case Studies ]