Thursday, December 26, 2019

Garbage in every corner, hygiene a casualty at GH

Aarthi N

Chennai:26.12.2019

If there is one thing that needs aggressive therapy at the government’s premier Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital it is hygiene.

On Wednesday, doctors and nurses could be seen chasing away stray dogs that were digging into piles of garbage including hazardous biomedical waste stacked at different places such as staircases and corridors of the hospital.

None of the dogs has collars and most of them depend of food left behind by attendants of patient or visitors. The hospital has more than 3000 in-patients and 15,000 out-patients. It sees at least 50,000 people every day. Although a board says how many dogs have been sterilized, no one is sure about the number of strays in the hospital.

Hospital resident medical officer Dr S K Thirunavukkarasu said Greater Chennai Corporation picks up stray dogs from the campus, sterilises them and drops them back on campus. “We are told that the civic agency is following a government order. It is a big nuisance because they roam about everywhere,” he told TOI.

Although the waste is segregated at source as hazardous and general waste, it often gets mixed up when left beneath staircases for pickup. “This is the area for the patients and visitors to sit. No one is here because it stinks,” said Santhosh S, a visitor.

Another visitor Ranjan V said the management should ensure hygiene. “They tell us to take care of patients because their immune system is not good. Sadly, even hospital isn’t safe enough for them.”

There are 34 points for general waste collection and the civic agency picks them up at least twice every day. About 450kg of bio-medical waste is picked and sent for incineration, autoclave or deep burial.

Hospital dean Dr R Jayanthi said the hospital has been making appeals to visitors. “We clean the hospital every day. We also ask visitors to leave the place the way they would like to see it. That doesn’t happen,” she said.



FULL OF FILTH: Bags of biomedical waste kept inside the hospital raise a stink, say visitors

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