Health officials of the Tiruchirapalli City Corporation have detected un-segregated biomedical wastes in solid wastes meant to be transported from a private hospital and the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial GH to the city’s garbage dump on Tuesday.
Health officials, led by City Health Officer C.Mariappan, initially checked the garbage that was about to be transported from a private hospital at Thillai Nagar in the morning and found biomedical waste mixed with other solid wastes of the hospital.
The waste collected in containers was being loaded on to a Corporation garbage truck when the officials intervened. Health officials, who preferred a police complaint against the hospital, said some human anatomical wastes and other biomedical waste were found in the containers. The officials also conducted checks at the Government Hospital at Puthur where garbage bins placed by the Corporation inside the premises were found to contain some biomedical wastes. Garbage collected at the bins is periodically transported to the garbage dump at Ariyamangalam.
The civic officials said the matter would be taken to the notice of the District Collector.
The GH and private hospitals in city have tie-up arrangements for transport and disposal of biomedical wastes at a regional facility located at Sengipatti.
A senior official of the GH said that biomedical wastes are segregated and sent to the Sengipatti disposal facility. Colour-coded buckets have been placed at all wards. However, some medical waste could have found its way into the general solid waste by mistake or owing to ignorance of some nursing students or sanitary workers.