“The authorities at the Government hospitals could have improved the sanitation facilities by even outsourcing them.”
Health is a priority sector given the fact that infrastructural facilities have been undoubtedly improved in Government hospitals in recent years but still the delivery of health services in government hospitals is not as prompt as it should have been now in the current era of digitisation. Though priority has been the upgradation of infrastructural facilities but the little attention given to the collection and disposal of biomedical waste is irritating the visitors in Government hospitals across Jammu & Kashmir. Unfortunately sanitation at Government hospitals is not getting the attention it deserves. In the twin capital cities Srinagar and Jammu and major towns of both Kashmir Valley and Jammu division heaps of biomedical waste are found placed in the dumper placers outside the premises of several hospitals. While people prefer private hospitals over government hospitals mostly because of good sanitation facilities, the authorities at the Government hospitals could have improved the sanitation facilities by even outsourcing them. Though some district hospitals have outsourced sanitation works but still biomedical waste is found scattered in and around the Government hospitals even in twin capital cities not to talk of major towns and rural areas of Jammu & Kashmir. During high intensity covid-19 pandemic periods people even protested against the municipal authorities for leaving huge heaps of medical waste scattered in the hospitals in both the twin capital cities and major towns of Jammu & Kashmir but unfortunately even the growing public outcry against unprecedented accumulation of medical waste in and around hospitals went unnoticed.
“Obviously the solution to the crisis of medical waste accumulation in and around government hospitals lies in creating biomedical waste treatment facilities in both the twin capital cities-Srinagar and Jammu and major towns of both Kashmir and Jammu divisions. The onus of creating such biomedical waste treatment facilities for the hospitals obviously lies ultimately on Health and Medical Education Department”.
As demands for regular lifting of the medical waste from dumper placers kept in and outside hospitals in twin capital cities and major towns of Jammu & Kashmir are growing day after day and month after month, the disposal of biomedical waste in Government hospitals is yet to attract the attention and intervention of the Health & Medical Education Department. Obviously the solution to the crisis of medical waste accumulation in and around government hospitals lies in creating biomedical waste treatment facilities in both the twin capital cities-Srinagar and Jammu and major towns of both Kashmir and Jammu divisions. The onus of creating such biomedical waste treatment facilities for the hospitals obviously lies ultimately on Health and Medical Education Department and a decision on such a pressing public issue has to come from the top for implementation in the Government hospitals even in the remotest of the remote rural areas of Jammu & Kashmir.
