GUWAHATI: In view of the prevailing outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, safe disposal of biomedical waste remains a major issue of concern.
There have been reports of biomedical waste being disposed off in Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) dustbins which are meant for garbage disposal.
G Plus had earlier reported an inicident where a welfare worker from Guwahati, Ittisha Sarah, who runs an initiative called the Northeast Waste Collective, found a bag labelled ‘clinical infectious wastes’ in the dumpster on the R.G. Baruah Road.
However, the report highlighted the dangers caused by mismanagement and improper disposal of biomedical wastes especially at a time like this, posing a threat to lives of sanitation workers.
To examine the matter, a team of GMC officials was formed under the guidance of Commissioner Devajyoti Hazarika and led by Joint Commissioner Pulak Mahanta.
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On May 18, the team inspected four hospitals located in Lokhra, NH37 and Gotanagar to check their biomedical waste management system. The hospitals inspected are Critical Care Hospital, Excel Care Hospital, Ayursundra Hospital and Akansha Hospital.
Critical Care Hospital was penalized an amount of Rs 50,000 while Akansha Hospital was penalized an amount of Rs 30,000 for non-compliance of biomedical waste management rules.
At both the hospitals, anomalies were found as disposal of biomedical waste and general waste were not segregated. Logbook of waste management was also not being maintained.
Additionally, Critical Care Hospital also had its license renewal pending.
It should be mentioned that to ensure safe disposal of biomedical waste generated during treatment, diagnosis and quarantine of patients with the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the ICMR had come out with special guidelines.
The guidelines provide a series of steps for safe disposal of waste generated in hospital isolation wards for COVID-19 patients, testing centres and laboratories, quarantine facilities and homes of suspected patients.
State health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, during a press meet on May 7, had said that all biomedical waste being generated in the state are getting disposed as per ICMR guidelines.