Govt hospital flouting norms on waste disposal

- Handling of biomedical waste like syringes, disposables, used cotton wads and bodily fluids are treated unscientifically and thrown into river
- APPCB claims effluents should be treated and disinfected by chemical treatment but rarely practiced

Kurnool: Government General Hospital (GGH) here catering to patients from Kadapa, Kurnool, Chittoor and Anantapur districts and erstwhile Mahbubnagar district in Telangana State, has violated medical effluent treatment norms and causing health hazards to citizens. Particularly, handling of biomedical waste like syringes, disposables, used cotton wads and bodily fluids are treated unscientifically and thrown into the Hundri and Tungabhadra river beds.

Staff of the major government hospital in Rayalaseema region has been burning the waste within the hospital premises, raising an alarm among the patients and environmentalists. Biomedical waste includes bodily fluids and other medical waste, which is generated through patients with infectious diseases. The antibiotics, psychotropic substances and other drugs consumed by patients are not fully ingested and they are excreted that eventually find their way into the drainage system.

Eventually, such infectious and often toxic waste, end up in drainages, which in turn has the potential to become ideal breeding grounds for vectors and spread infection.

The AP Pollution Control Board (APPCB) which supervises the government hospitals and private hospitals set out norms saying that effluents be treated and disinfected by chemical treatment before they are let out into the drains. Or, hospitals with a capacity of more than 50 or 100 beds need to have an Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) to treat the effluents generated by them.

Even though, the GGH is spending close to Rs 55 lakh per month on hospital upkeep including waste management. The contract was given to a private agency. As per terms of the contract, the implementing agency had to supply disposable bags and colored baskets for removal of biomedical waste in the hospital.

The contractor failed to supply bags and baskets which had resulted in no segregation of waste. When contacted, APPCB Zonal Office head T Rajender Reddy said that, being a government hospital they are supposed to be a role model for other hospitals. Basically, two types of wastes they have to segregate. One is disposable waste and the other is solid waste. The PCB is mulling action against the hospital for their waste management practices which are contrary to the guidelines prescribed under the Act, he said.

The hospital authorities need to change their mindset. Based on the bed strength, a small fee is levied on them for dumping their waste. JC Babu, a scientist of Central Pollution Control Board, which works under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, informed The Hans India that Biomedical Waste Management Rules, 2016 have gone for a thorough change and now mandates bar code system for proper control. The ambit of the rules has been expanded to include vaccination camps, blood donation camps, surgical camps or any other health care activity. On biomedical waste treatment practices of GGH here, he said that it was totally against the prescribed practices for hospitals. He said officials of the APPCB would be assigned to file a report on the matter.

V Narendra Kumar