Fire at GMCH exposes lack of waste management

  • | Monday | 17th December, 2018

But once the saleable dry waste is segregated, the rest comprises soiled napkins, bandages, syringes, cotton and organic waste. GMCH medical superintendent Kailash Zine said the spot where the fire broke out was used for collection of waste from various wards and buildings .“The biomedical waste is sent to a private company. The GMCH, with the help of informal waste pickers, undertakes secondary segregation. It also sensitized the hospital administration of dry and wet waste processing.Currently, most wards in the hospital, barring a few, were sending in mixed waste, sources in the health hub admitted. “The fire was brought under control soon and no casualty was reported,” he said.The GMCH authorities had collected and kept the waste in bags inside a room behind the mortuary building.

Aurangabad: A fire broke out in a heap of waste at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) on Sunday evening.Though the fire brigade doused the flames within half-an-hour, the incident has exposed the absence of a waste treatment system at the state-run hospital.Chief fire officer RK Sure said the fire brigade received the information of the fire at 5.45pm and sent a fire tender to the spot immediately. “The fire was brought under control soon and no casualty was reported,” he said.The GMCH authorities had collected and kept the waste in bags inside a room behind the mortuary building. GMCH medical superintendent Kailash Zine said the spot where the fire broke out was used for collection of waste from various wards and buildings .“The biomedical waste is sent to a private company. The recyclable material is sorted, while the rest is dumped and buried in an open space behind ward numbers 8 and 9,” he said, adding that the hospital doesn’t have funds to engage an agency for solid waste management.The disposal mechanism of GMCH, which generates several tonnes of waste daily, is not just violating the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, but is also posing health hazards to patients and people living in the compound.Incidentally, the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation had expressed its incapability to collect waste from the hospital in April and asked it to manage its own garbage.The civic body, however, helped the GMCH administration set up a mechanism for solid waste management by making the hospital staffers aware about the importance and ways to segregate waste at source. It also sensitized the hospital administration of dry and wet waste processing.Currently, most wards in the hospital, barring a few, were sending in mixed waste, sources in the health hub admitted. The GMCH, with the help of informal waste pickers, undertakes secondary segregation. But once the saleable dry waste is segregated, the rest comprises soiled napkins, bandages, syringes, cotton and organic waste.

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