Ghaziabad: Le Crest fined Rs 1 lakh for violating medical waste guidelines

GHAZIABAD: The district administration on Monday imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on Le Crest Hospital, Vasundhara, for violating bio medical waste norms. The hospital management was also issued a warning for fudging records. It had ten vacant ICU/ventilator beds but showed all the beds occupied in its records.
Mithilesh Kumar, district health officer, said, “We are conducting regular inspections at private hospitals and on Sunday we inspected Le Crest Hospital in Vasundhara. They had put up a sign outside the hospital saying beds not available but when we checked, we found 10 ICU/ventilator beds vacant. Also, patients from other districts were undergoing treatment in the remaining beds.”
The hospital has 150 oxygen beds and 25 ICU/ventilator beds. It was also found that the hospital was also not disposing of bio-medical waste as per norms. “We have imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on the hospital and they have been issued a show-cause notice. The hospital will have to reply in 24 hours, and if they fail to do so, we will act against them,” Kumar added.
However, even after repeated attempts, Dr Vivek Garg of Le Crest Hospital did not respond to calls.
Meanwhile, the administration and the health department are working on a plan to provide hospitals with oxygen in a controlled manner. An official said, “Private hospitals are demanding more oxygen than the number of beds/patients and this is skewing our calculation. They are admitting patients more than their capacity, which is resulting in the crisis.”
So, the administration has decided to keep a daily record of the number of patients in each hospital and the oxygen requirement. “The record will be checked on an hourly basis which needs to be conveyed to authorities and this way we will get an idea of the required amount of oxygen which will be delivered to hospitals” added the official.
He said the practice will minimise the chances of hospitals indulging in hoarding of oxygen which has become a norm in many hospitals.