HYDERABAD: As mountains of biomedical waste pile up in Gandhi Hospital on a daily basis, emitting a foul smell, people living in nearby apartments are leading a miserable life. Added to this is the stench that emanates from the bodies that lie in the hospital’s mortuary, unclaimed and uncremated. The waste consists of used PPE kits, gloves, hair caps, foot covers, and plastic medical waste such as syringe bodies, among others, from the Covid treatment wards.
Nearly 2,000 PPE kits are disposed off each day and heaps of these are strewn across an open compound. For weeks, these blue garbage bags have not been removed from the hospital’s premises, reportedly due to a pricing altercation between the State government and the private contractor in charge of collecting the waste. M Narasimha Rao, a resident of Sambhavi Apartment located adjacent to the hospital’s compound, said repeated attempts to flag the issue to the hospital fell on deaf ears.
Contractor demands price hike, waste piles up
Meanwhile, Gandhi Hospital Superintendent Dr Raja Rao said the waste would be cleared every day now on and that residents should not be scared. “The company to whom the contract was given to clear the biomedical waste had completed its term, and is refusing to clear the waste until the price for the service is increased. I have made a representation to the government, and a new work order with revised pricing has been issued.
The biomedical waste, henceforth, will not pile up anymore and will be cleared every day.” He said the waste is not very dangerous as is thought to be. “The biomedical waste is disinfected inside the hospital with a generous spray of sodium hypochlorite before it is packed into bags and disposed off,” Dr Raja Rao said.
‘Garbage lying in pools of water’ “The biomedical waste has not been cleared for weeks. We tried to seek help from the hospital’s administration several times but our pleas fell on deaf ears. Due to the rains, the garbage is lying in pools of water and the odour is unbearable. We are 35 families in the building, with children and elderly people. The unhygienic conditions at the hospital, especially with regards to the biomedical waste, scares us,” Narasimha Rao said