EMPTY intravenous drips and pooled blood were among the rubbish left in clinical waste sacks dumped in Old Town.

The eight yellow hazardous waste bags were discovered by parish councillor Toby Robson on Prospect Place as he walked home with his three children on Saturday afternoon.

Inside the bags were stuffed medical detritus and there appeared to be blood pooling at the bottom of at least one of the sacks, left near the corner of Victoria Road.

Coun Robson, who represents Eastcott ward on South Swindon Parish Council, said: “I had just been for a walk round Old Town with all three kids. We were just on our way back when I did a complete double take.

“This is incredibly dangerous. As I was sorting things out, I saw a couple of pools of blood in the bottom of a bag and transparent bags with drip equipment.

“Some of those drip bags should have some patients’ names on them. That adds a whole lot more concern.

“My other half is a nurse. I said to her, ‘This stuff shouldn’t be here, should it?’ She said absolutely not."

Toby Robson

He phoned Swindon Borough Council’s emergency hotline, saying a clean-up team arrived within 15 minutes to take the sacks away.

However, Coun Robson said one passer-by who lives in the area told him some of the sacks had been by the side of the road since Wednesday.

Now, he wants the council to make sure the sacks aren’t incinerated before any details can be taken that could identify who dumped the sacks in Old Town, near King William Street Primary School and the busy restaurants and bars of Victoria Road.

Clinical waste in the news

The issue of how clinical waste is disposed has been in the news recently, after it emerged that one firm stockpiled hundreds of tonnes of human waste collected from NHS hospitals.

Healthcare Environmental Services was stripped of its NHS contracts and the Environment Agency launched an investigation, saying the company had breached environmental permits at five sites that dealt with clinical waste.

A spokeswoman for the Environment Agency said earlier this month: "We are taking enforcement action against the operator, which includes clearance of the excess waste, and have launched a criminal investigation.”

Q&A: What should I be doing with clinical waste?

According to Swindon Borough Council, hazardous clinical waste should not be disposed of in the black wheelie bin or blue rubbish sacks.

Instead, dressings, catheters, syringes, drain tubes and other waste from someone suffering an infection, should be disposed of in special yellow/orange sacks. Needles or syringes should be placed in a sharps box.

Usually, requests for clinical waste collections come to the council through GPs or other medics. However, people can request a collection by calling the council direct on 01793 445501.

Nappies, sanitary pads or incontinence pads are not classed as clinical waste. They can be left in the black bin or blue waste sacks.