Absence of mechanism to dispose of hospital waste

Hospitals, clinics, and diagnostic centres in Rawalpindi dump their waste on the open spaces, rivulets, sewers and roadside bins posing a threat to public health.

As hospital waste carries bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungus, its improper handling can expose people to deadly diseases such as tetanus, gangrene, hepatitis, HIV, and tuberculosis, medical experts say.

There are several public hospitals and many registered hospitals, clinics, and diagnostic centres in the city and these, except for a few, dump waste in open spaces pushing hundreds of people into deadly diseases apart from polluting the environment.

The state-run hospitals are generating the highest amount of waste, as they do not have a safe disposal system in place. On average, one hospital daily produces over two tons of medical waste that is dumped in public places.

The medical waste includes infectious pathogens, blood, body fluids, tissues, organs, body parts, sharp needles, blades, syringes, scalpels, saws, broken glasses, and nails that can cause a cut or puncture, experts in another hospital say.

There are no incinerators to dispose of the medical waste. A visitor can see medical waste scattered on the premises of Cantonment Hospital, District Headquarters Hospital, Railway Hospital, General Hospital, and Holy Family Hospital.

People often see the waste dumped along the narrow lanes behind the hospitals and observe the vendors, especially children, picking the recyclable items. Heads of several departments have expressed their concern over a lack of a mechanism to dispose of hospital waste.

The civic authority claims that although it is ready to help the hospital authorities dispose of medical waste, they (hospital authorities) do not cooperate with it.

One medical superintendent, however, claims that the hospital has about 100 cleaners for safe disposal of waste, so there is no question of dumping it in open spaces. “The civic body should come forward to help the hospital authorities make safe disposal of the medical waste,” he said.

According to the health ministry sources, out of tons of medical waste produced by the hospitals every day, only a small portion of it is ‘safely’ disposed of. The rest is dumped ‘anywhere’ or collected by street urchins. Out of the total tons, over one-third of the waste is highly hazardous and infectious.

Apart from the registered hospitals, clinics and diagnostics, there are several hundreds of unregistered medical centres in the city, producing an unspecified amount of medical waste every day and dump that in open bins or rivulets, according to various sources involved in healthcare services.

City residents do not know whether there is any non-governmental organization working for the safe disposal of medical waste in the city’s wards. Moreover, whether they collect and treat or not kilograms of medical waste from hospitals, clinics, and diagnostic centres every day.