The meeting called by MMC Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes with stakeholders of health facilities on biomedical waste disposal.
Photo Credits: Santosh Mirajkar
MARGAO
Healthcare facilities in Salcete seem to have not responded to the call by civic body for utilization of the common biomedical waste treatment facility at Kundaim, even as the plant with German technology has started trial runs.
Of the 300-odd healthcare facilities in Salcete taluka, with overwhelming majority of them being located within the Margao municipal jurisdiction, less than 50 of these healthcare facilities have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the concessionaire Ms Biotic Waste Solutions Pvt Ltd till date.
This became evident at a joint meeting convened by Margao Municipal Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes to discuss the bio-medical waste disposal facility when a senior marketing executive of Biotick Meshak Dayanand said around 30-35 healthcare facilities might have so far paid the security deposit and registration fees to the agency.
Dayanand, however, exuded confidence that the healthcare facilities from Salcete and across the state would hand over the biomedical waste to the agency since the urban local bodies have been directed by the government to stop collecting mixed waste from the health care facilities.
He said the agency has fixed rates for the categories of healthcare facilities, including hospitals with less than 30-beds and above 30-beds, pathological labs, dental clinics etc. “We charge Rs 9.95 for a bed per day in a 30-bedded hospital. We have fixed different rates for different categories of hospitals”, he said.
He added: “The process of entering into a MoU with the health care facilities is underway. Some of the facilities have paid the security deposit and the registration fees. The plant at Kundaim can meet the requirements of all health care facilities in the state for disposal of their biomedical waste”.
Goa Waste Management Corporation’s Assistant Manager Nikhil Caeiro said the biomedical waste treatment facility at Kundaim has started trial runs, adding that the plant is now in a position to accept the biomedical waste from across the state. “Ms Biotic Waste Solutions have deployed as many as seven vehicles to collect the biomedical waste from the health care facilities from across the state”.
The agency will collect sanitary pads and diapers separately as per the system in force.
MARGAO: Margao Municipal Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes on Monday said the civic body will stop collection of biomedical waste from health care facilities in the commercial capital after Diwali festival.
The Chief Officer said though the Director of Urban Development has directed the urban local bodies to stop collection of bio-medical waste from the health care facilities immediately, the MMC has decided to give time till Diwali in order to put a mechanism in place wherein they hand over the biomedical waste directly to the government-appointed agency Biotic Waste Solutions for disposal.
“I have called this meeting as a facilitator to bring the stakeholders, including the owners of health care facilities, the government agency to put a system in place for safe handling and disposal of the bio-medical waste”, he said.
The MMC Chief officer said the health care units should avail the facility at the Kundaim industrial estate at the earliest.
To a question, he said no representatives of the IMA, Margao attended the meeting called by him on Monday, while representatives of Hospicio hospital, GWMC, the agency and an owner of a hospital turned up for the meeting.
