Hospitals told to chalk out waste disposal plans within a week

Health authorities also order administrations of hospitals to ensure
provision of safe drinking water to visitors within two weeks

As almost all major public hospitals in Karachi lack a proper system for the safe disposal of the hazardous medical waste they produce, the provincial health authorities directed their administrations on Friday to come up with their separate ‘hospital waste management plans’ within a week.

The directives come in the wake of reports that not a single hospital in the city was following the Sindh Hospital Waste Management Rules, 2014.

The health authorities have also ordered the administrations of all hospitals in the province to ensure within two weeks that safe drinking water was being provided to patients and their attendants. None of these hospitals have ever made arrangements for the provision of safe drinking water to the visitors.

Most of the hospital waste produced at major public and private hospitals is stolen, sold to junk dealers at the Shershah scrap market and Gutter Baghicha, where it is recycled, repacked and then sent back to the hospitals in the city as well as to medical stores, spreading infectious diseases.

The major public hospitals in the city including the Civil Hospital Karachi, the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center, the National Institute of Child Health and the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases have no arrangements to provide safe drinking water to patients and their attendants and they are forced to buy bottled water from the canteens and shops in and around the hospitals.

“Today we summoned medical superintendants of public hospitals and district health officers and told them to implement the Hospital Waste Management Rules 2014 within a week and ensure the provision of safe drinking water at the health facilities within two weeks,” additional health secretary Jamaluddin Jalalani told The News.

He added that the medical superintendents of public hospitals were asked to prepare their separate hospital waste management plans by the end of next week and present it to the health department so that they could be implemented upon.

“In January this year, we had held a meeting where we learnt that there was no hospital waste disposal system in Karachi and that’s why we had this follow-up meeting today.”

He said hospital waste could not be allowed to be sold and dealt as ordinary, domestic waste anymore.

The administrations of hospitals have been directed to ensure the provision of safe drinking water by using all possible means including filtration and reverse osmosis plants.

“After the completion of two weeks, the district health officers will inspect the hospitals and report violation, if there are any, to the health department so that necessary measures can be taken,” Jalalani said.

Committees suggested

During the meeting, JPMC executive director Dr Seemin Jamali suggested the formation of hospital waste management committees at hospital that would hold regular meetings

“We have formed a hospital waste management committee comprising senior doctors and professors and it has recently held its first meeting, the minutes of which are available,” Dr Jamali said.

She added that the JPMC was repairing its incinerator, which was being used to dispose of the hospital waste of the NICH and NICVD. She added that these two health facilities were also sending their waste to the JPMC for its disposal.

Domestic solutions

National Institute of Child Health Director Dr Jamal Raza called for domestic solutions for the disposal of hospital waste in Karachi. He suggested that instead of looking for international standard incinerators, locally-made ones should be used for disposing of hospital waste.

He noted that despite being situated in the vicinity of the Karachi Cantonment Board, the hospital’s solid waste was not being taken care of by the board. “We have written several letters to the board to dispose of the waste produced by the NICH as we don’t have our own incinerator.”

NICVD representative Dr Malik Hamidullah agreed to come up with a plan for hospital waste management in a week. “Currently we are disposing of hospital waste with the help of the JPMC and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.”

Medical superintendents of many other hospitals also presented their ideas and issues related to hospital waste and assured that they would ensure provision of drinking water to visitors.