NHS appoints Anenta to manage clinical waste services for GPs across Hampshire, Isle of Wight, and Thames Valley
Leading independent healthcare waste management company Anenta, has today announced that it has been appointed by NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) to oversee and manage the delivery of clinical waste logistics and disposal services to over 600 GP surgeries across Hampshire, The Isle of Wight and the Thames Valley. The appointment takes the total number of GP surgeries provided with Anenta’s waste management services in the South East region to in excess of 1,400.
Anenta will be deploying its AI technology and industry leading analytics solutions to identify waste service efficiencies and savings that can be made on behalf of the 600 recently onboarded surgeries. Having saved the authority more than £1.7m over the past 24 months through the implementation of its dedicated, online contract management platform ‘Vector’, Anenta is aiming to return additional savings, helping to provide further funds to frontline services.
Using its cutting-edge, real-time smart technology, Anenta will ensure that the NHS authority only pays for waste services used by its GPs, delivering effective contract management against existing specifications.
Where future contracts are concerned, Anenta provides an integrated service which ensures that services are correctly specified, providing customers with transparency and the ability to proactively manage their environmental services.
Anenta will be responsible for managing over 37,000 scheduled and 13,000 ‘on-demand’ collections of waste generated by the 600 GP surgeries. This comes in addition to the service already provided to 800 other GP surgeries across the South East region.
As part of its service, Anenta manages GP waste audits and actively identifies opportunities to streamline waste services, bringing about the possibility for further savings through price negotiations with service providers. Anenta also aids GPs with complex ‘pre-acceptance’ audits, which are required by the Environment Agency, and has successfully streamlined this process, saving GPs in the South East Region in excess of 12,600 hours per year.
Commenting on its appointment Graham Flynn, managing director of Anenta, said: “Our goal is to give doctors’ surgeries greater control over their waste at the same time as delivering best value and reduced admin requirement. Through technology that ensures the delivery of high quality, reliable and accurate clinical waste services, we simplify waste management for both the NHS and the GPs themselves.
“By constantly optimising service provision so that capacity is used more effectively, our technology is able to return significant savings to the sector. Having already saved the South East region £1.7m in the past two years, we look forward building on this figure further.”
Kevin Oliver, Commissioning Manager, Pharmacy & Optometry, NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) – South East Region, commented: “Anenta has a strong track record of managing clinical waste contractors on behalf of the NHS, including CCGs.
“Having successfully managed the Kent, Surrey and Sussex GP waste contract since October 2018, Anenta has proved that it is ideally placed to take on the wider South East region covering Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and the Thames Valley region.
“Central to their appointment was the knowledge that Anenta provides all the necessary assurances to satisfy the stringent requirements of NHSE&I. This includes the ability to analyse, examine, check and scrutinise every single billable item through Anenta’s software programmes. This process ensures that irregularities are quickly identified enabling overbilling to be disputed with waste collectors. Critically, where incorrect billing occurs, Anenta ensures that credit notes are raised before authorising the invoice for payment.”
Kevin Oliver added: “Utilising their expertise and understanding of the sector, Anenta is able to manage enquiries from both waste contractors and the waste producers, such as GPs, ensuring consistency of service and the ability to realise enhanced efficiency, generating the potential for further costs savings.
“Anenta provides full technical support and manages the relationship between the waste collection contractors and clinical waste producers seamlessly. This is a service that we are very pleased with.”
Anenta does not provide waste collection services itself but instead manages the process on behalf of NHS Authorities, assisting the waste provider and ensuring value for money.
Anenta’s proprietary software – Vector – identifies and matches agreed waste service provisions against pricing, applicability, charges and quantities collected to eliminate over-charging; managing any invoice disputes on behalf of pharmacies, before approving payments made by the NHS authority. Anenta’s system also identifies and addresses inefficiencies in waste collection services, reducing unnecessary transport and excessive plastics use.
The extended GP surgery remit follows on from NHSE&I’s recent appoint of Anenta to oversee and manage the delivery of clinical waste logistics and disposal services to over 700 pharmacies across Hampshire, The Isle of Wight and the Thames Valley in May, taking the total number of pharmacies provided with Anenta’s waste management services in the South East region to in excess of 1,500.
For more information about Anenta, visit www.anentawaste.com or call 03301222143.