Delhi government hospitals yet to comply with biomedical waste disposal rules

On Wednesday, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee issued an ultimatum to all non-bedded health care facilities in the city to obtain authorisation by April 25 under Bio-medical Waste Management Rules 2016 or face closure.

Even though the Union environment ministry had last year extended its deadline for compliance with the new rules for handling biomedical waste till March 27, 2019, Delhi government hospitals and dispensaries are yet to get the mandated barcoding for tracking such waste.

Delhi government hospitals and dispensaries are yet to get the mandated barcoding for tracking biomedical waste. (HT File Photo)

On Wednesday, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) issued an ultimatum to all non-bedded health care facilities to obtain authorisation by April 25 under Bio-medical Waste Management Rules 2016 or face closure.

Taking cognizance of a report in HT about illegal dumping of bio-medical waste in Barapullah Nullah, the DPCC also imposed ₹5 lakh as environmental compensation charge on SDMC, PWD and district-level monitoring committee (South East).

“The problem in Delhi is that there are just two common biomedical waste treatment facilities and their areas are demarcated, so that they have a monopoly in their respective areas. The government has not been able to carry out a competitive bidding process because we need more than one bidder,” a senior official from Delhi government’s health department said.

“Currently, 10 Delhi government hospitals are getting the registration done. We will try and get it done for the rest of the hospitals as soon as possible,” the official said.

The procedure is being undertaken as the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has already asked the state governments to share their login ID and password for tracking the biomedical waste.

“We have written to all states to share with us the login ID and password for the websites on which the waste can be tracked. We have received some replies, but we are still waiting for all states to respond before we compile the data,” a CPCB official said, requesting anonymity.

The common waste disposal vendors have already installed the required barcoding.

“We have tied up with a company for the software and the barcodes and have to set up a website for the data,” Ankit Gupta, marketing head, Biotic Waste Solutions, one of the bidders, said.

North Delhi Municipal Corporation’s six hospitals have already implemented the system. “Now, we get the disposal bags from them that are already barcoded and we can track them. We are reporting the figures daily,” Dr Arun Yadav, head of hospital administration, North body said.

The Central government-run Safdarjung hospital has designed its own system. “Safdarjung was the first to comply with the biomedical waste rules. At that time, the vendor did not have a barcoding system so we got a system of our own. It is dynamic and the data can be integrated with any other network,” Dr KT Bhowmik, additional medical superintendent of the hospital, said.

Smaller nursing homes and clinics are also yet to comply with the rules.“the problem is that a neurologist or a general physician who just prescribes medicines and does not generate waste also has to register. Besides, even the doctors who have registered complain that the service is not regular— in some places, the waste is collected once a week or every 10 days,” Dr Girish Tyagi, president elect of DMA, said.

The smaller facilities also haven’t switched over to the non-chlorinated bags. “Most of the big hospitals have started using non-chlorinated bags. We still get mixed bags, resulting in the emission levels going up,” Gupta said.