AIIMS among nine hospitals violating biomedical waste disposal rules

Nine government hospitals, including the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Safdarjung Hospital, have been found guilty of “absolute violation” of rules laid down for safe disposal of highly infectious biomedical waste.

Nine government hospitals, including the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Safdarjung Hospital, have been found guilty of “absolute violation” of rules laid down for safe disposal of highly infectious biomedical waste.

The national green tribunal had on May 22 found these nine and 24 others private and government hospitals in the Capital posing a “very serious threat” to human health and environment and told them to set things right in four weeks or face action.

An expert committee formed by the tribunal inspected these hospitals and submitted its report on Friday and indicted nine hospitals —AIIMS, Safdarjung, Lala Ram Swaroop, Lady Hardinge, Sucheta Kriplani, Kalawati Swaran, Ram Manohar Lohia, Hindu Rao and Baba Saheb Ambedkar —for “absolute non-compliance”.

Terming the laxity as shocking, the tribunal on Friday said these nine hospitals were likely to cause not only health hazards but also environmental pollution.

“It’s a serious matter. All central and state authorities are directed to cooperate and provide all financial assistance that may be required to carry out the directions without any delay,” the tribunal said.

The daily footfall at AIIMS and Safdarjung, both central government facilities, is 50,000 each. While AIIMS gets 10,000 new patients every day, the figure for Safdarjung is 7,000-8,000.

A senior union health ministry official will hold a meeting with the heads of all these hospitals within a week to discuss steps to be followed. And the hospitals will get four weeks to change.

The tribunal said an inspection would be carried out and in case of non-compliance, pollution control authorities, which will also help formulate guidelines, would take action without any notice. The inspection team will submit its report on August 23, when the matter will be heard next.

The committee found eight other hospitals that were lax to some extent. They have to take appropriate action in a month.

The rest 16 have been found doing “alright” and their names have been taken off the list of defaulting hospitals.