268 med facilities asked to follow norms or shut down

PATNA: Bihar State Pollution Control Board (BSPCB) has issued ‘proposed direction for closure’ to 268 medical establishments in 10 different districts for violating norms for scientific storage, transportation and treatment of biomedical waste at the common biomedical waste treatment facilities (CBMWTFs).
in November and December
The BSPCB has already issued directives to all the hospitals and other medical institutions to get their biomedical waste treated only at the CBMWTFs authorized by the state government.At present, only Patna, Muzaffarpur and Bhagalpur have the facility.
In Patna, the CBMWTF is available at Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Science (IGIMS), at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital (JLNMCH) in Bhagalpur and in Industrial area at Bela in Muzaffarpur. Sources said one more CBMWTF is proposed at Gaya.
“We have been notifying all the hospitals for regulating their biomedical waste treatment for a long time now, but after this notice, if someone is still seen violating the instructions, their establishments will be shut down,” BSPCB chairman Ashok Kumar Ghosh told this newspaper.
Explaining the harmful impact of biomedical waste, BSPCB scientist Naveen Kumar said: “Biomedical waste is basically produced while diagnosing and treating people in the hospitals, pathology labs and nursing homes. It is hazardous if left in the open as the infected tissues, needles and syringes can spread infections and cause many diseases.”
Shailendra Kumar Singh, a senior biomedical engineer at CBMWTF in IGIMS, said: “Biomedical waste comprises 15 to 20% of total waste generated by any medical institutions. We have outsourced the biomedical waste treatment set-up to a private agency, which looks after its functioning and maintenance.”
He added: “Currently, 1,325 institutions (private and government) of Patna, Nalanda, Ara, Buxar, Rohtas and Kaimur districts are registered with IGIMS for the transportation, treatment and disposal of biomedical waste. Our teams visit the hospitals, nursing homes and pathology labs and convince them to get registered with us. If they refuse, we send their details to the BSPCB to take further action.”