Hospitals must incinerate medical waste to avoid legal action: Wahab

The adviser to CM on law, environment, climate change and coastal development department, Barrister Murtaza Wahab, has directed all private and government hospitals of Karachi to immediately submit their hospital waste management plans to the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) in accordance with the Hospital Waste Management Rules 2014.

He was chairing a meeting on Tuesday in the office of the Karachi commissioner. The meeting was attended by the secretary of the environment, climate change and coastal development department, Khan Muhammad Mahar, Director General Sepa Naeem Ahmed Mughal, Additional Director General Sepa Waqar Hussain Phulpoto and representatives of all major private and government hospitals of Karachi.

Wahab regretted that hospital waste being generated in the city was being disposed of haphazardly without complying with the HWM Rules 2014. He said the government was very serious about the issue and would never allow any government or private hospital to continue with this malpractice.

He also took serious notice of the absence of representatives of a few major private and government hospitals in the meeting and also expressed his displeasure at those who attended the meeting without any prior homework.

It was also decided in the meeting that the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation would share the previous three years’ record of hospital waste, which was disposed of at their incinerators and also a copy of the outsource agreement made with the 3rd party. The KMC would also provide a list of hospitals which were utilizing the services of KMC incinerators for disposal of their medical waste.

The cantonment boards of the city were also directed in the meeting to chalk out their policy framework for hospital waste and depute efficient officers to inspect the hospitals in their jurisdiction for their regular monitoring as most of the waste was found on the beaches, said the meeting.

The adviser directed Additional Director General Sepa Waqar Hussain Phulpoto, who is also a focal person on HWM in Sindh, to issue notices to both private and public hospitals for a hearing on the disposal of medical solid waste from Monday regularly inviting each of hospital and getting their modus operandi for the task.

The Sindh Health Care Commission would also submit a detailed list of the hospitals to Sepa for the issuance of notices as decided in the meeting for a personal hearing about each public and private hospital.

It was also decided in the meeting that the deputy commissioners would furnish reports regarding segregation and disposal of medical waste of hospitals located in their jurisdiction.