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Blatant disregard for rules

81pc healthcare facilities not following due process
Piling up medical waste discarded thoughtlessly at landfills in city corporation areas pose serious threat to public health. Divisional cities, excluding the capital, have around 1,380 healthcare establishments -- public and private -- that produce over 20 tonnes of medical waste every day. To draw attention to this alarming issue, The Daily Star is highlighting medical waste management in major cities across the country. In this instalment, we look at medical waste management in Mymensingh city.
Md Aminul Islam, Mymensingh
Majority of healthcare facilities in Mymensingh city are not following proper medical waste disposal system, due to authorities’ failure to check the malpractice and lack of necessary government arrangement to dispose of those.
The city has a total of 221 healthcare facilities -- 131 hospitals and clinics and 90 diagnostic centres, according to the civil surgeon’s office.
According to Medical Waste (Management and Processing) Rules 2008, all healthcare centres must have mechanisms to incinerate or sterilise medical waste.
But no hospital, clinic or diagnostic centre in the city has any such arrangement. Medical waste -- in many cases mixed with general ones -- are dumped in public dustbins and open spaces -- particularly at Moilakanda in Char Kalibari.
Amid the situation, Nobo Waste Management Service Ltd in collaboration with Mymensingh City Corporation (MCC) set up a medical waste disposal unit at Akua in September last year.
Abul Hasnat Epu, managing director of Nobo Waste, said necessary infrastructures -- incinerators, two pits and a recycling unit -- has been set up on 18 decimal of land given by the city corporation. The project cost is Tk 40 lakh, which they spent from their own fund.
But even after setting up the system to dispose of waste properly, only 18.63 percent of the healthcare facilities avail the service through them in exchange for monthly fees, he added.
“We charge hospitals and clinics Tk 2,000-3,000 per month. Till now, only 41 hospitals are taking the service.”
Mymensingh Medical College Hospital (MMCH), the lone government and major hospital in the city, does not incinerate or sterilise its waste.
MMCH Deputy Director Dr Laxmi Narayan Majumder said they are unable to install the equipment. “We have a shed where we dump all sorts of waste. Later, garbage trucks of the city corporation carry those to Moilakanda in the evening.”
Amputated body parts and other materials produced from the operation theatre are buried near the dumping spot, he said.
As MCC carries all sorts of garbage in their trucks, it is not productive to keep those in separate containers, said Dr Narayan.
“In a recent meeting, officials of public health engineering department and MCC assured us of establishing a modern waste disposal plant on the hospital premises,” the doctor added.
When asked about taking service from Nobo Waste, he said, “We pay tax to the city corporation. So, the responsibility is theirs.”
During a recent visit, this correspondent saw general and medical waste (used syringes, needles, broken glass tubes and bandages) dumped together on the hospital premises.
Dr HA Golandaj Tara, secretary of Bangladesh Private Clinic and Diagnostic Centre Owners Association, said many private hospitals do not want to pay additional fee to another company as they are already paying the city corporation a monthly fee to remove all sorts of waste.
He, however, said, “We are encouraging clinic owners to dispose of medical waste through the private company. We held a meeting with the city corporation officials and Nobo Waste to settle the matter.” He hoped the crisis would be resolved by this month.
When asked why they do not have their own arrangement, he said no healthcare facility in the city could afford such disposal plant.
Photo: Md Aminul Islam
Cattle graze at Moilakanda of Mymensingh, where regular garbage mixed with medical waste has been piling up for years. Bottom left, farmer Abdul Malek stands next to his cropland which has been ruined due to unabated garbage dumping. Right, a worker dumps all sorts of garbage on MMCH premises.
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