Private hospitals ‘dump’ medical waste rules

A report on bio-medical waste (BMW) management submitted to the Bombay High Court last week said there was “insufficient compliance” of the Bio-medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998.

The report suggested that the private hospitals were bigger offenders than the civic and government hospitals.

The court had appointed two advocates, Shiraz Rustomji and Uday Warunjikar, as court commissioners to inspect government and private hospitals with an officer of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) and a doctor from the directorate of health services.

The 175-page report said that the staff in government and municipal hospitals abided more by the BMW disposal rules than their counterparts in private hospitals.

In most cases, the court commissioners stated that the waste was not being segregated and instead being disposed with the garbage that was carried by the municipal dumpers.
Moreover, workers handling this waste were not provided with safety gears.
As many as 40 hospitals, ranging from the 20-bedded private ones to the largest hospital in the state, the civic-run KEM Hospital, were visited by the court commissioners and their teams.

In leading government hospitals like JJ and KEM, the report says there is scope for improvement as far compliance of BMW rules is concerned. Used needles were not being destroyed or burnt as prescribed in the rules in most hospitals.
j_mayura@dnaindia.net