PPCB serves notices to 54 hospitals for improper disposal of biomedical waste

These raids were conducted in major cities and towns of the state by 22 teams headed by Senior Environmental Engineers and Environmental Engineers of the Board. Each team was directed to visit a minimum of five hospitals,at least one Government Civil Hospital,one big private hospital and three small private hospitals.

The prominent violators that have come to light include Tagore Hospital Jalandhar,Amardeep Hospital Amritsar,Mohan Dai Cancer Hospital Ludhiana,Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Bathinda and eight government hospitals. The raids were conducted at Mohali,Ludhiana,Pathankot,Amritsar and Bathinda K S Pannu,Chairman of the Board said that they feared that some health care facilities in the state are not complying with the conditions laid down under Bio-Medical Waste Rules and 22 teams were sent to conduct raids throughout the state.

“A total of 108 hospitals were raided. The visit reports of all these hospitals were scrutinized minutely and the 54 government and private hospitals were found violating the various provisions of the biomedical waste rules,” Pannu said.

As per the provisions of these rules,all hospitals are required to segregate bio-medical waste into different containers according to a colour code prescribed in the said rules and if the hospitals does not have its own Bio-Medical Waste Treatment Facility then the containers are to be transported from the premises of the hospital to the Common Bio-Medical Waste Treatment Facilities located at Mohali,Ludhiana,Pathankot and Amritsar.

However,instead of treating or transporting the highly infectious bio-medical waste to these common facilities,the hospitals were found indulging in unethical and unhygienic practices of dumping it locally.

Pannu disclosed that the show cause notices have been issued to all the defaulting hospitals under section 5 of Environmental Protection Act-1986 and those found guilty will face the punitive action under law. “The Board is adopting a zero tolerance policy in this regard,” he added.