Khawaja Salman Rafique, special assistant to the chief minister on health, on Tuesday directed Health Department officials to create a system to dispose of hospital waste.
He warned of strict action against those selling hospital waste.
He was presiding over a meeting at the Civil Secretariat to discuss hospital waste management.
The meeting tasked a technical committee to submit its recommendations on how to manage hospital waste at district level under the Environment Protection Act. The committee will be convened by the director general and includes a representative each from DIPH, solid waste management, environment department, World Health Organization and UNICEF.
The participants were informed that some of the incinerators installed in the hospitals of 19 districts to dispose of hospital waste were non-functional. Rafique directed them to make them functional and said that incinerators must also be provided to DHQ hospitals in the remaining 17 districts.
A proposal to form clusters of incinerators was also discussed. It was decided to make it compulsory for private hospitals to arrange to dispose of their waste in a prescribed manner. The meeting was attended by Environment Secretary Saeed Wahla, Special Secretary Health Dawood Bareech, Director General Dr Nisar Cheema, DIPH Prof Muaz Ahmed and Additional Secretary (Technical) Dr Anwar Janjua.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 18th, 2012.
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