HYDERABAD: Three corporate hospitals in the city, KIMS Hospitals at Minister Road, Care Hospitals at Banjara Hills and Medwin Hospitals at Nampally, were found to be violating bio-medical waste management rules under the Environment Protection Act 1986 during surprise inspections conducted by two teams of the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) headed by Madhusudhan Rao and Raghu.As per rules, the segregation of infectious waste, plastic waste, sharps and domestic waste is essential in order to prevent outbreak of any infection and contamination. The yellow bags in which only human anatomical waste is supposed to go were containing plastic waste also. Blue bags, supposed to be filled with plastic waste, were found to be containing general domestic waste like food leftovers.The APPCB conducted surprise inspections at the KIMS orthopaedic, gastroenterology, gynaecology, oncology, general ward and infertility wards. KIMS is constructing a new block for which the hospital has not taken “Consent for Establishment (CFE)” from the APPCB. It was also found that about 4,50,000 litres/day of waste water was directly discharged into the municipal drain joining the Hussainsagar near Ranigunj. A sample of the same was collected and submitted to the board’s laboratory for analysis. The HCE has not yet commissioned the Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) and Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) as is required under the rules. Medwin and Care Banjara are also not segregating bio-medical waste and are discharging untreated waste water into municipal drains in spite of several notices issued by the APPCB. The infected/expired blood units from the blood banks located in HCEs are disposed into municipal garbage.They are also not following the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board’s guidelines for disposal of radio active waste and the same is being mixed with general waste. Further action will be taken by the Board after receiving reports from the laboratory.
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