The Hindu : New Delhi News : Hospitals found flouting waste management rules

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Saturday, Jan 12, 2008
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New Delhi

Hospitals found flouting waste management rules

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

Prescribed colour coding of disposal bags not being followed

The containers are being colour co-ordinated with uniforms of the hospital staff or hospital décor
Another round of inspection to be held to check progress of erring private hospitals; says official

NEW DELHI: Several private health care establishments in the Capital have been found to be flouting the Bio-medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998, by not adhering to the colour coding prescribed for containers used for collecting waste in health care premises.

Despite the aggressive measures put in place by the State Environment Department and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, it has been found that private hospitals in the city “were colour co-ordinating the waste disposal bags with the uniforms of the hospital staff or the hospital décor”.

“We have warned those flouting the rules and putting at risk the lives of those working in the hospital and those coming there for treatment,” said a senior Directorate of Health Services official.

“We will soon be conducting another round of inspections to assess the progress that these erring hospitals have made to improve the condition. Several tonnes of bio-medical waste are produced in the city and it is vital that it is collected and disposed of in a proper manner. The indiscriminate use of waste containers, where all waste produced by the hospital is dumped without segregation, exposes humans around to infection and injuries,” he added.

According to the Bio-medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998, a blue container is to be used for disinfected and mutilated plastic (blood bags, IV sets, urine bags, syringes, catheters and gloves); red for infectious waste (microbiological and bio-technological waste, blood soaked bandages, soiled dressing and cotton swabs); yellow for body parts and anatomical tissues; and black for general (non-infected plastic, cardboard, packaging material and paper).

Delhi is home to an ever growing number of health care units and has 604 registered nursing homes, according to a census conducted in 2006, and has about 1,550 unregistered health care units with different names in the city. In addition to these, there are government hospitals, dispensaries, registered and unregistered nursing homes.

“We understand that smaller nursing homes encounter several day-to-day problems when it comes to managing their waste including lack of adequate space for waste treatment facility, high capital cost involved in procurement of equipment, high operation and maintenance cost, multiple statutory bodies for licensing and lack of training and experience to make the treatment facility cost effective. While the Environment Department acknowledges these problems, health care centres should not act in an irresponsible manner,” said State Programme Officer (Bio-medical Waste Management), K. S. Baghotia.

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