SWANSEA: Thousands of old cancer centre X-rays destroyed — but their silver is heading to the Royal Mint
Thousands of old X-ray films from Swansea’s cancer centre are being destroyed – but not before the silver they contain has been extracted and sold on to the Royal Mint in Llantrisant, where it could end up as Welsh jewellery.
Staff at the South West Wales Cancer Centre at Singleton Hospital teamed up with specialist metal extraction firm Betts to recover silver from more than 8,000 X-ray films that had passed their retention period and were due for destruction.
The process generated a rebate of more than £1,000 for the radiotherapy department.
Anna Iles, interim head of service for radiotherapy, said the films were a legacy of an older era of cancer treatment. “Historically, for radiotherapy treatment we would produce hard copy X-ray films to verify treatment,” she said. “Now it’s all done electronically.”
The films had originally been stored in the radiotherapy department at Singleton, but as the department expanded the space was needed for other uses.
They were moved to an external storage facility in Cardiff – at a cost to the health board.
When Swansea Bay University Health Board later acquired its own storage facility in Llansamlet, space became available at Singleton for the films to be brought back from Cardiff. That repatriation in itself generated a significant saving for the department.
Of the more than 16,000 X-rays held in storage, around half had passed their retention period and could be lawfully destroyed. Rather than simply disposing of them, the team identified that the films contained recoverable silver and linked up with Betts to extract it.
The process required careful sign-off before it could go ahead. “We worked closely with colleagues in information governance to get sign off that we could send the X-rays to Betts, where they extracted the silver and we then got a rebate of more than £1,000,” said Iles.
The story has an additional Welsh twist. While Betts is based in England, the firm works in partnership with the Royal Mint in Llantrisant – meaning the silver recovered from X-rays taken in Swansea could return to Wales in an entirely new form.
“Betts works in partnership with the Royal Mint, selling the recovered silver, which is then used in the creation of jewellery,” said Iles. “It is quite nice that there is the potential for the silver to come full circle back to Wales.”
The remaining 8,000 or so films that are still within their retention period will continue to be stored until they too can be lawfully destroyed – at which point the same silver extraction process is expected to be repeated.
The South West Wales Cancer Centre provides radiotherapy and oncology services for patients across the Swansea Bay University Health Board area and beyond. It is based at Singleton Hospital on the edge of Swansea Bay.
Swansea Bay University Health Board says the project demonstrates how clinical teams can find creative and sustainable ways to generate savings and reduce waste – while also ensuring sensitive patient information is securely destroyed in the process.
#jewellery #Radiotherapy #RoyalMint #SingletonHospital #SouthWestWalesCancerCentre #SwanseaUniversityHealthBoard #XRay
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Ethan Siegel
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