Now add bio-medical waste to Pune’s list of problems

The hospital near your residence may save your life.
Sadly, according to a survey carried out by the Centre for Environment Education, an NGO and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, it may cause sickness too. The villain: biomedical waste.
Despite new rules and regulations introduced by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and government awareness campaigns for hospital staff, the recent study reveals shocking facts about the apathy of health care establishments (HCEs) regarding bio-medical waste.
The detailed survey of small and large hospitals, clinics (including those of ophthalmologists and dentists, pathological laboratories) and blood banks reveals that the threat posed by wrong disposal of the biomedical waste is real in Pune.
"We have done the same survey in Bangalore and Delhi before," says Shyamala Mani, national co-ordinator of the project, "The disturbing figures there prompted us to survey Pune too."
Mani points out the anomalies in the system, starting from the lack of zonation for hospitals. Sixty per cent of city hospitals are situated in residential areas packed with buildings, thus leaving no space for waste disposal.
"We found that most Pune hospitals don’t have any waste segregation system. So harmful waste is mixed with the normal waste," she elaborates, "While the PMC service of doorstep collection of garbage is fair enough, a large number of small hospitals in Pune are unhappy about the charges and still dump waste in garbage bins."
This trend not only poses an immediate health threat to rag pickers, but can infect residents in the vicinity of a hospital too.
The problem doesn’t end with the waste management. The staff of the hospital is constantly under danger of infection. Dr A V Sangamnerkar, director, Colony Nursing Home and president of Maharashtra Medical Council, blames it on undertrained hospital staff, who don’t understand the implications of improper disposal of hospital waste. "In cases of smaller hospitals, they are reluctant to pay the charges for private incinerators, says he, "If bigger hospitals have these facilities established and make them available to smaller hospitals, the problem will be solved."
Dr Suhas Erande, who is associated with some of the biggest hospitals in the city, says, "If a hospital has less than 50 beds, the waste disposal van won’t come to its doorstep, which makes the smaller hospitals vulnerable to improper waste management. For a better system, the PMC should make incinerators available at a subsidised rate, which will help smaller hospitals to set up the equipment on their premises."
A source from a reputed pathological lab completely denied the reports and said that they could be ‘misleading’ to the public just because a few labs have a bad system.
sharvari.joshi@timesgroup.com