Hospitals not complying with SC norms on waste disposal
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, October 23 2013:
Contrary to the Supreme Court ruling for mandatory compliance with bio-medical waste disposal measures, the directive seems to have little impact on authorities concerned as Government hospitals such as RIMS and JNIMS as well as district hospitals are yet to possess incineration equipment/machine.
While Manipur has about 500 registered Government and private hospitals/clinics a random survey by The Sangai Express suggests that not many are adhering to the apex Court's instruction for incinerator at every medical centres, either Government or privately run.
For instance none of the district hospitals were found to have incineration system as bio-medical wastes were spotted dumped/disposed within the hospital complexes.
Even though most of these district hospitals have no facility to conduct major operations, minor surgical procedures and administration of injections are common practices.
With the Supreme Court decree implying that after proper incineration the remains should be further disposed at deep depth to avoid health hazard, it can be safely concluded that absence of incineration system in district hospitals means that bio-medical wastes are being disposed at the convenience of the hospital employees.
Apart from the district hospitals, bio-medical waste disposal measure was found to be far from convincing at JNIMS, the largest State Government hospital, where medical wastes were spotted piled in sacks near the OPD and many of the waste material including used hand-gloves scattered on the road.
As development of the JNIMS incinerator plant is in the final stage, the hospital authorities have reportedly intimated to Manipur Pollution Control Board for approval of the plant's usage.
When contacted Board officials confirming that hospital authorities have been instructed to fully comply with the Bio-medical Management and Handling Rules, confided that even though bio-medical waste management measures have been initiated the same steps are not 'satisfactory' .
While terming the RIMS incinerator system as 'non-functional' the officials maintained that the JNIMS facility is not ready for operation.
It is also said that the incineration plant set-up by Shija Hospital at its Langol complex has incineration capacity of 1000 kilogram of bio-medical wastes on a daily basis compared to the total daily output of about 800 kgs by both Government and private hospitals/clinics.
Many medical centres located in the capital districts are said to be utilising the Shija facility for disposing medical wastes.
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