With the National Green Tribunal seeking a status report from Tamil Nadu Government on the management and disposal of biomedical waste, Indian Medical Association (IMA) has asked private healthcare centres to ensure compliance with Biomedical Waste Management Rules (BMWMR), 2016.
IMA has instructed member hospitals and nursing homes to ensure that biomedical management norms strictly followed.
S. Karthik Prabhu, Secretary of Nursing Home Board of IMA Tamil Nadu, told The Hindu the order of the NGT had been conveyed to all the member private hospitals and nursing homes and asked them to strictly adhere to the norms.
“All healthcare centres are mandated to follow the BMWMR, 2016 to run the facility. The Nursing Home Board of IMA has instructed all member facilities to make sure that the norms are followed,” said Dr. Prabhu.
The Nursing Home Board of IMA Tamil Nadu has more than 4,000 healthcare facilities as members.
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Apart from the safe disposal of biomedical waste, the norms also mandate healthcare centres to maintain and update on day-to-day basis the biomedical waste management register and display the monthly record on its website category wise.
Surya Narayan, a partner of Tekno Therm, one of the two common bio-medical waste treatment and disposal facilities in Coimbatore, said that the facility was currently handling biomedical waste generated by larger hospitals in Coimbatore, the Nilgiris and Tiruppur (10,000 beds in total).
“Biomedical waste generated by clients are collected on day-to-day basis. The segregated waste are collected in bar-codded bags for disposal in the common treatment facility.
The pollution and emission levels are updated to the Pollution Control Board online as per norms,” Mr. Narayan said.
S. Bhuvaneswari, managing director of Kovai Bio Waste Management Private Limited, the second facility, said it was currently in the process of upgrading the machinery to meet the standards of the Central Pollution Control Board, largely to address biomedical waste management needs of smaller healthcare establishments such as clinics, dental and eye care centres.
The BMWMR, 2016, norms applies to all persons who generate, collect, receive, store, transport, treat, dispose, or handle biomedical waste in any form. Hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, dispensaries, veterinary institutions, animal houses, pathological laboratories, blood banks, Ayush hospitals, clinical establishments, research or educational institutions, health camps, medical or surgical camps, vaccination camps, blood donation camps, first aid rooms of schools, forensic laboratories and research labs are covered under the Rules.