KARACHI: Hospital waste being sold to junk dealers
KARACHI, March 27: Despite presence of an incinerator at the Civil Hospital, Karachi, used syringes, needles, empty drip bags and cotton in a huge quantity are sold to junk dealers for recycling.
This has been happening despite constitution of a waste management committee in the recent past whose duty is to ensure safe disposal of hospital waste on a daily basis through incineration plant.
The committee is headed by MS of the hospital and four senior doctors are its members. However, it has taken a lenient view towards this grim situation.
The sweepers, in league with their supervisors and security guards posted at entrance and exit of the hospital, manage to gain financial benefits after selling these items to the junk dealers.
Since the government abolished the parchi system in all government hospitals, the CHK administration has introduced a hospital waste management charge under which each patient visiting OPD or casualty department is bound to pay Re1 on this head.
It is estimated that between 3,500 and 4,000 patients visit these two departments daily and up to Rs4,000 are generated by the hospital for maintenance of hygienic conditions.
Ironically, the incinerator plant established some 10 years ago at the CHK for disposal of hospital waste hardly operates regularly since a huge quantity of the waste is exported outside for ulterior motives.
The incineration plant at CHK is the only plant of its kind among all public hospital in Karachi.
Since the waste is disposed of to junk dealers who have their huge godowns at Ranchore lines and Rawswami area, they manage to send it for recycling, and finally it is sold to medical stores and related outlets for reuse.
The recycled injections are attributed by health experts as a major cause of spread of infectious diseases which continue claiming lives of an overwhelming segment of the country’s population as well as being responsible for serious illnesses and long term disabilities.
Moreover, most feared diseases caused by the use of dirty and unhygienic syringes and needles is transmission of hepatitis and AIDS viruses to other patients. If this practice is not checked immediately, HIV/AIDS and blood-related diseases would continue to increase at an alarming rate among population posing severe health risk to them in the process.—PPI
