Med waste at Egmore hosp raises a stench
Hospital Pins Blame On Visitors For Littering
Aditi.R@timesgroup.com
Chennai:13.09.2019
Medical waste generated at the Government Hospital for Women and Children in Egmore is piling up in a corner of the campus and is proving to be a health hazard.
On Thursday, the waste pile largely comprised food waste, soiled diapers, clothes, slippers, blood-soaked bandages, syringes and empty medicine bottles. A worker was seen handling the pile without any protective gear.
“I have been experiencing severe breathing problems since the last couple of days due to the stench from this,” said the worker who packs waste from the hospital into garbage bags before placing it in colour-coded dustbins.
The hospital records 80 to 90 deliveries a day, the highest in a government facility in Tamil Nadu. Though it has separate bins to segregate wet and solid waste from biomedical waste, officials at the hospital blamed visitors for not following instructions.
“All biomedical waste is collected in red, white and yellow bags and sent outside, only the general waste is collected here. But if syringes and bottles were found in this pile we shall immediately look into it. Only visitors could have thrown it there,” said Dr S Shobha, director-in-charge of the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the hospital. The hospital has outsourced services for waste management to a private firm.
Patients complained that often crows and dogs flock around thegarbage pile. “Crows pick up waste from the pile and drop it everywhere,” said P Thilothama, a visitor. The hospital staff blamed the corporation staff and claimed that they do not turn up regularly to clear the pile. “The corporation van used to come twice a day to clear the waste, but since the last two months they only come once in the evening and sometimes do not even turn up,” the staff said.
“We collect the waste only if it is handed over to us, not when it is strewn all over. Our workers cannot enter the hospital campus and clean it for them,” said an official from the corporation.
HAZARDOUS PILE: Patients complained that crows and dogs flock around the garbage mound and enter the campus
Hospital Pins Blame On Visitors For Littering
Aditi.R@timesgroup.com
Chennai:13.09.2019
Medical waste generated at the Government Hospital for Women and Children in Egmore is piling up in a corner of the campus and is proving to be a health hazard.
On Thursday, the waste pile largely comprised food waste, soiled diapers, clothes, slippers, blood-soaked bandages, syringes and empty medicine bottles. A worker was seen handling the pile without any protective gear.
“I have been experiencing severe breathing problems since the last couple of days due to the stench from this,” said the worker who packs waste from the hospital into garbage bags before placing it in colour-coded dustbins.
The hospital records 80 to 90 deliveries a day, the highest in a government facility in Tamil Nadu. Though it has separate bins to segregate wet and solid waste from biomedical waste, officials at the hospital blamed visitors for not following instructions.
“All biomedical waste is collected in red, white and yellow bags and sent outside, only the general waste is collected here. But if syringes and bottles were found in this pile we shall immediately look into it. Only visitors could have thrown it there,” said Dr S Shobha, director-in-charge of the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the hospital. The hospital has outsourced services for waste management to a private firm.
Patients complained that often crows and dogs flock around thegarbage pile. “Crows pick up waste from the pile and drop it everywhere,” said P Thilothama, a visitor. The hospital staff blamed the corporation staff and claimed that they do not turn up regularly to clear the pile. “The corporation van used to come twice a day to clear the waste, but since the last two months they only come once in the evening and sometimes do not even turn up,” the staff said.
“We collect the waste only if it is handed over to us, not when it is strewn all over. Our workers cannot enter the hospital campus and clean it for them,” said an official from the corporation.
HAZARDOUS PILE: Patients complained that crows and dogs flock around the garbage mound and enter the campus
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