Pragma Hospital found flouting rules

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, July 18

The Mansa Civil Hospital and Pragma Hospital in Bathinda were today found to be not adhering to the guidelines pertaining to the treatment of medical waste.

It came to light during a surprise check at these hospitals by teams of assistant environmental engineers of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB).

The Bathinda Civil Hospital and Max Super-specialty Hospital were also checked but they were found to be largely adhering to the norms.

The Government of India had notified rules for handling bio medical waste under the Management and Handling of Bio Medical Waste, 1998, which was amended and re-issued in 2016.

Following these re-issued rules, the Punjab Pollution Control Board has been training its officers and employees.

In order to ensure implementation of these rules at various hospitals, on the directions of chairman of the PPCB, Kahan Singh Pannu, two teams of the PPCB regional officer conducted checks at hospitals in Mansa, Bathinda and Muktsar.

Assistant environmental engineer Ruby Sidhu said, “We had received directions from the department to conduct surprise check of seven private and government hospitals, which have a capacity of 50 beds or more. My team visited four hospitals of which the Bathinda Civil Hospital and Max Super-specialty Hospital were found to be adhering to a majority of the norms.”

She said the Mansa Civil Hospital authorities cited issue of fund crunch behind non-installation of effluent treatment plants, which are mandatory for hospitals with 50 or more beds.

“The ETPs are mandatory for treatment of effluents. The Mansa Civil Hospital is 100-bedded and still its medical effluents are flowing into the drains and sewerage. The same was the case with Pragma Hospital in Bathinda. It is a 60-bedded hospital and it should also have an ETP,” Sidhu added. 

She added that as per the biomedical waste norms, the hospitals needed to segregate medical waste and keep it in separate trash bins. 

“While the soiled or blood-stained waste needs to be kept in yellow bins, all plastic waste has to be thrown into red-coloured bins. Glass, broken or not, needs to be kept in blue bins. The hospitals were also found to be lacking in these aspects. We found that although bio medical bins had been installed at various spots, the same were not being used in compliance with the orders,” she said. 

The teams will now submit their reports with the department and action will be taken against the hospitals that are not adhering to the rules.