Around 2,000 small-scale healthcare centres including non-bedded clinics in Coimbatore region have tied up with a city-based common biomedical waste treatment and disposal facility for the disposal of biomedical waste after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) set September 30 as the deadline for the process.
Apart from Allopathy clinics, healthcare facilities providing Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homoeopathy treatments, physiotherapy centres, eye-dental clinics, blood banks and veterinary clinics were also asked to complete the process to comply with biomedical waste management norms and the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act.
S. Bhuvaneswari, managing director of the city-based common treatment facility named Kovai Bio Waste Management Private Limited, said that around 2,000 clinics have entered into agreement with the firm for collection and disposal of biomedical waste.
These healthcare centres are from Tiruppur, Coimbatore, Pollachi, Udumalpet and Mettupalayam. The common treatment facility will also collect biomedical waste from primary health centres in the Nilgiris under the tie-up made with Tamil Nadu Medical Supplies Corporation.
Another common treatment facility named Tekno Therm is collecting biomedical waste generated by larger hospitals in Coimbatore, the Nilgiris and Tirupur.
These small-scale healthcare centres were also asked to get clearances from Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) to function in compliance with various provisions of the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act.
However, according to doctors who applied for the clearance, the process involved glitches as the online interface TNPCB created for the application was similar to the one it created for industries.
“There are several mandatory fields to be filled up that are not applicable to healthcare centres. The application could be submitted only when all mandatory fields are filled. When we contacted TNPCB officials, we were asked to write ‘not applicable’ on a paper, scan it and upload it to complete such mandatory fields,” a doctor attached to a city-based clinic said.
M. Mariappan, president of Coimbatore branch of IMA, said that special camps were held for member doctors to complete the TNPCB registration process and also to tie up with the common treatment facility. He added that IMA national headquarters has already written to the NGT to relax the biomedical waste management norms for non-bedded clinics.
