PHC wants to know how K-P’s hospitals dispose of medical waste

Court grants provincial health department, EPA two weeks to file reports

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday told the director generals of the provincial health department and Environment Protection Agency (EPA) to submit detailed reports about waste generation and disposal at public and private hospitals of the province.

A two-member bench, comprising Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Ayub Khan, was hearing a writ petition filed by Advocate Saifullah Kakakhel.

The court observed that the authorities will not only have to work to dispose of hospital waste, but would also have to ensure that it is properly handled by hospitals and clinics.

The petitioner told the court that waste generated by hospitals and clinics cannot be discarded on the roads like the regular solid waste in the city. Moreover, Kakakhel argued that the case is not only confined to disposing of waste through incineration but about its proper handling as well.

“This is not only a threat to citizens in the shape of infectious diseases which spread from medical waste, but also results in environmental pollution,” Kakakhel argued.

“The management of hospitals and clinics are not complying with the Standard Operation Procedures issued.”

He added that even in major hospitals of the province did not have incinerators for disposing of medical waste. Moreover, the ‘burning chamber’ in the Khyber Teaching Hospital is located adjacent to the doctors’ hostel, which is injurious to the health of doctors because of the extreme pollution it causes.

The petitioner had named the K-P government, through the chief secretary, local government secretary, directors of the of Lady Reading Hospital, KTH and Hayatabad Medical Complex, Health Regulatory Authority and Environmental Protection Agency of the province as respondents in the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2017.