Ragpickers and slum dwellers around G T hospotal

As per the universal regulations for disposal of such material, an incinerator was installed in the hospital about a year back and was even inaugurated by senior health officials, according to hospital sources. But this machine was never used for disposal of the infective material, which is now being dumped in an open garbage bin outside the hospital.

Such garbage bins are daily haunts of ragpickers and slum dwellers who try to salvage some intact things, sources said. These things, like needles and syringes, are often cleaned and sold to quacks in the area, who use it on unsuspecting, poor patients, sources pointed out. As a result, many of them could be getting infected and even to the same hospital for treatment, thus adding to the existing workload.

When asked about this, Dr RB Selmokar, medical superintendent, GT Hospital, said that though the incinerator has been installed, it has not been functioning for a technical reason. The reason is that though the requirement for the chimney is 30 metres, that of this machine is only 10 metres, he explained. A proposal has been sent to the government for making this change and this work is likely to cost about Rs five lakh, he added.

However, at the moment, the biomedical waste from the hospital is collected from the various wards and operations theatres and then cut before it is dumped in the garbage bin, the official said. Therefore, this waste is unlikely to infect anyone and there is no chance of this being a health hazard to the public, he claimed.