Says not its duty; next solution yet to be found
the goan I network
PANAJI
At a meeting organized jointly by the Indian Medical Association (IMA), CCP and Goa Health Monitoring Services (GHMS), CCP Commissioner Dipak Desai said
the corporation was not generating any profit adding that it was not the duty of the corporation to collect biomedical waste.
“Though CCP will stop collecting biomedical waste from April 1, there is no solution on how to collect the waste that will be generated.
The proposed Kundaim treatment facility will take another two years till it is complete and the existing setup doesn’t allow us to make any profits,” he said.
Currently, the CCP has had an agreement with GHMS, which is a Goa State Pollution Control Board authorized body, to handle biomedical waste. CCP through the GHMS collects biomedical waste from 97 healthcare facilities including pathology labs, clinics and veterinary hospitals.
GHMS collects between 120 to 150 kilograms of biomedical waste on a daily basis. Segregated biomedical waste is then disposed in two ways -- one by taking it to the GMC’s incinerator and the other at Manipal Hospital’s autoclave.
At the GMC, 50 to 55 percent of the waste, amounting to around 60 to 75 kilograms, gets incinerated. The rest is taken to Manipal Hospital where a 550 litre autoclave machine sterilizes the rest of the segregated waste. It is then chemically disinfected and then shredded and finally
re-segregated into metal and plastics. The final re-segregated materials are then sent for recycling.
The liquid waste generated in this entire process is treated at the hospital’s sewerage treatment plant.
With the CCP now stepping out of the way, health facilities will have to deal directly with the GHMS for a higher rate. Speaking to medical representatives from some of the city’s facilities,
GHMS’s Dr Devdutt Sail urged facilities to setup a segregation units of their own to help ease the process.
The health facilities, CCP and GHMS are expected to come to a consensus on the next step later next week after deliberations.
They will then meet with Health Secretary Sudhir Mahajan with their decision.
