APPCB identified the problem as serious about three years ago and has
filed cases against a few of the violating corporate and government hospitals.
However, the situation has not improved as most of the hospitals were
not in a financial position to set up
individual incinerators nor did the hospitals have enough place to accommodate an incinerator.
An additional reason could be that the municipal corporation vehicles
were picking up the waste at a nominal charge whereas otherwise the hospitals
would have to pay high costs for effective treatment/disposal of the wastes.
In this the hospitals and nursing homes were not interested at all.
Yet, another reason for the delay in implementation of proper waste disposal
methods can be attributed to the fact that the hospitals did not have
a driving force required to bring forth a common facility to operation.
There is a need for voluntary self monitoring of biomedical waste management
in these public health interested, health care institutions. Peer pressure
will be a better force for encouraging conformity. In this regard the
action proposed by the APPCB includes training the hospital management
staff in proper management of wastes, methodology to be adopted in segregation
of the wastes using colour coded containers and by commissioning of common
treatment facilities for bio-medical wastes, thereby reducing the capital
costs and operating burden on individual small and medium hospitals.