A hospital trust is being impacted by a scandal over human body parts and toxic waste piling up at disposal sites.

Medical waste disposal company HSE has been stockpiling hazardous medical waste at five national sites for some weeks due to a lack of incinerator capacity.

Barking Havering and Redbridge Hospital Trust (BHRUT) is one of the NHS trusts that uses HSE for its medical waste disposal.

It and others have been placed on standby to store their medical waste in specialised containers until the situation is resolved.

The Government held an emergency meeting on September 13 to discuss the problem and has set aside up to £1 million to help the 50 hospital trusts affected.

The Environment Agency has served the waste disposal company with several warnings and compliance notices after it failed to destroy the hazardous waste within legal timeframes.

HSE is attempting to export up to 750 tonnes of hazardous waste to Holland in an attempt to clear the backlog.

Currently, the firm collects up more than 500 tonnes of “incineration only” waste for the NHS but there are fears legal action against the company could see it go bust.

According to the Health Service Journal, if the disposal company were to fold, the impact on NHS medical waste disposal nationally could be severe.

BHRUT has confirmed that it uses HSE for its medical waste disposal but that it has contingency plans in place. 

A trust spokesman explained that the waste build up is occurring in the north of England.

Redbridge Council, NHS England and the Department of Health were contacted for comment.