12 Delhi hospitals ordered to shut down for violating biomedical waste norms

The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) has ordered 12 hospitals to shut down their operations and vacate patients in seven days for violating the biomedical waste norms. The DPCC identified as many as 56 violators of biomedical waste in the national capital.

The hospitals found violating the biomedical waste norms have been handed closure directions and given a week’s time to vacant the patients and shut down the services. Biomedical waste comprises human and animal bodily waste, treatment kit like needles, syringes and other materials used in health care facilities for the purpose of treatment and research.

All the persons who generate, collect, receive, store, transport, treat, dispose, or handle bio medical waste in any form, including hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, dispensaries, veterinary institutions, animal houses, pathological laboratories and research institutions, have to follow a set of guidelines under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 for the disposal of the biomedical waste.

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Scientific disposal of Biomedical Waste through segregation, collection and treatment in an environmentally sound manner is required by every person or hospitals to minimises the adverse impact on health workers and on the environment. Those who violate the guidelines will be punished under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

As per the guidelines, the hospitals need to put in place the mechanism for effective disposal of the biomedical waste either directly or through common biomedical waste treatment and disposal facilities.

In India, a single bed in hospital is estimated to generate 1-2 kg of biomedical waste per day and 600 gm per bed in clinic. While 85 per cent of the hospital waste is non-hazardous, 15 per cent is infectious. However, mixing of both hazardous and non-hazardous waste results in contamination and makes the entire waste hazardous.