KAKINADA: The district administration has been paying attention on bio-management practices across the district. according to sources, there are more than 600 hospitals in the district of which some were not following bio-medical waste procedures properly.
According to Medical Waste Management (Amendment) Rules 2018, it shall be the duty of every occupier to pre-treat laboratory waste, microbiological waste, blood samples and blood bags through disinfection or sterilisation on-site in the manner as prescribed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines on safe management of wastes from healthcare activities and WHO Blue Book, and then send to the common bio-medical waste treatment facility for final disposal. They are also in the process of phasing out use of chlorinated plastic bags (excluding blood bags) and gloves.
District collector Karthikeya Misra instructed the Pollution Control Board and civic bodies to take up bio-medical waste processing as per the guidelines. He asked the revenue divisional officers, municipal commissioners and other officials concerned to convene meetings with hospital managements and medical officials to create awareness on the need to implement bio-medical waste management practices. Sources said that more hospitals have been established in Rajahmundry and Kakinada. Mr Misra suggested the officials to pay more attention on these cities.
It is said that bio-medical management is run by EVV Technology which gathers the bio-medical waste every day from hospitals with two separate dust bins. The institute is also running a plant at Rajanagaram. Mr Misra suggested the Institute to improve its work and follow better practices in bio-medical waste. He expressed dissatisfaction over the firm and instructed the firm management to improve its working conditions, increasing vehicles for collecting the bio-medical waste.
Mr Misra also instructed the officials to make an enquiry on the hospitals whether they made their establishments as per zonal regulations or not. However, the Andhra Pradesh Nursing Homes Association leader Dr R.Ramana Rao said that the zonal system on private hospitals need not be followed.
