Hospitals told to take steps for biomedical waste management

HYDERABAD, DEC. 15. The Hyderabad District Collector, Mr. Rajeshwar Tewari has made a fervent appeal to hospitals in the city to take up bio-medical waste management measures as prescribed by the A.P. Pollution Control Board (PCB) in the best interests of society.

Speaking to presspersons after visiting the NIMS hospital here, he underscored the need for improving awareness levels among the people and the hospital managements. He said that only when people stepped up the pressure on those running hospitals would any progress be made.

Mr. Tewari was accompanied by Mr. Ravinder Reddy, Environmental Engineer, PCB, Dr. T. Dayakar and Dr. Satyanarayana and Dr. Vijaikumar of NIMS, Mr. Satyavir Chauhan of JCA, a voluntary organisation, and Mr. Muralidhar Reddy and Ms. Vinny from GJ Multi Clave (India), a company that claims to have the first comprehensive bio-medical waste management facility in the country.

He went around the intensive critical care unit, two more wards and the garbage dump and expressed happiness over the way the hospital staff had come to understand the need for waste management in a short span of three months. He said that if properly implemented, the steps would generate revenue because there was value in waste material too.

Mr. Chauhan, who is a member of the PCB's Task Force, and Mr. Ravinder Reddy recalled that although the beginning was tough, the progress that had been made so far was encouraging. However, there was need for the message to spread far and wide. Hyderabad had proved to be a model in bio-medical waste management, they said, adding that waste management was an integral part of any hospital's everyday functioning.

Ms. Vinny said that GJ Multi Clave (India) had everything it took to dispose bio-medical waste - incinerators, microwaves and landfill at the plant in Kottur in adjoining Mahbubnagar district. She said that all the corporate hospitals were now cooperative, having understood the magnitude of the problem.

She said the training programmes conducted by JCA and GJ Multi Clave were producing slow but steady results. Though there were some errant hospitals, she said most private hospitals had come to accept waste management as a vital area. She said the problem lay with the Government hospitals as there was no budgetary allocation for waste management.

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Section  : Southern States
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