Medical care is a disgrace especially at Government run hospitals
Hospitals sitting on powder-keg
Mehboob Jeelani (Rising Kashmir)
Srinagar: The hospitals in Kashmir are sitting on a powder-keg and there is apprehension that the like HIV and Hepatitis B cases may increase in the coming days as the ragpickers are having direct access to the waste-bins of health institutions and incinerators of SMHS and SKIMS hospitals.
“The rag pickers visit the incinerators near hostel building of SMHS every evening and collect the used syringes, IV drips, injection needles and other plastic materials,” said Dr. Javaid Ahmad Bhat, Injection Safety Coordinator of Social Preventive Medicine (SPM) department of SMHS.
He said the rag pickers later sell the plastic material collected from the hospital dustbins and incinerators to rag dealers of the Valley. “The dealers supply it to the factories, where spurious disposable injections are manufactured. Most of these dealers are active in North India, so we are in a greater threat of being hit by diseases like HIV and Hepatitis B,” he said.
Recently in Gujarat’s Sabarkantha district, the outbreak of the Hepatitis-B killed 49people over the past two weeks. According to experts, the usage of unsafe injection was the main reason for the transmission of Hepatitis-B.
SPM Coordinator said if immediate action is not taken to arrest this trend, then the percentage of HIV and Hepatitis B cases in Kashmir would double in next six years.
Javaid said, “Rag pickers must be barred from collecting the used syringes, IV drips, injection needles and other plastic materials from the hospital premises”.
A ward sweeper of SKIMS, pleading anonymity, said that 80 kgs of plastic waste are collected by rag pickers everyday. “They don’t even spare used cotton, left out blood packets, needles, syringes and other stuff. The needles are as good as new ones,” he said.
The ‘violations’ are taking place despite strict orders to hospital authorities from the Directorate of Health Services that they must abide by the color coding model of bio-medical wastes. According to the color-coding model, the hospitals have been directed to put the human anatomical wastes, animal waste and micro-biological waste into yellow coloured dustbins.
As per the guidelines the ideal disposal of sharp waste is to go for autoclaving or microwaving. “If this technique is not available then chemical treatment plus mutilation and shredding is an alternative,” states the guidelines.
However, this reporter saw the doctors, paramedics and nursing staff of SMHS’s casualty section disposing off sharp waste such as tubing catheters, IV drip sets, Ryle’s tube, urinary catheter, suction catheter, chest drain catheter, blood set, glucose bottles and plastic syringes into the yellow coloured dustbins that are prone to punctures.
When contacted, Principal Government Medical College, Dr, Shahida Mir said, “We follow the set guidelines. Still I will take this issue with Medical Superintendent of the hospitals”.
A study carried out by a group of students from different medical colleges of India recently revealed that nearly 98.9 per cent injections administered were found to be unsafe.
A top SKIMS official told Rising Kashmir that the hospital authorities had strictly ordered for destroying all the injected needles.
“Unfortunately the doctors and paramedics forget to follow the directions,” he added.