Next time, before going to the hospital, think twice as you might just end up catching an infection from there.
Over two-thirds of the health care organisations in the state pose a major threat to the public as these institutions dispose of biomedical waste in a hazardous manner by not following the government rules meant to prevent contamination and spread of diseases. Statistics reveal that out of nearly 15,000 hospitals in the state - both government and private, only 4,103 are utilising the services of IMAGE (Indian Medical Association Goes Eco-friendly), which has been entrusted with the disposal of the waste as per the Biomedical Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998.
In order to prevent the spread of infectious diseases from blood-stained cotton, needles, syringes and other wastes, the state government in 1998 had framed the Rules for effective disposal of biomedical waste generated in hospitals and clinics.
The Rules stipulated that every hospital in the state should eliminate its medical waste by setting up incinerators as per specified norms. However, incinerators are costly and economically not feasible for small health care institutions.
Considering this, it was amended later in such a way that a common registered authority could handle the biomedical wastes generated in various hospitals. Thus, IMAGE, the biomedical management body of the Indian Medical Association, became the authority to handle biomedical wastes of all the medical institutions in the state.
“At present, we are rendering our services to 4,103 hospitals and clinics across the state. For a nominal fees from the medical institutes, we collect their wastes and eliminate it in our plant at Palakkad. However, a large number of hospitals and clinics are yet to avail of our services,” an official working with IMAGE said.
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