Medical waste scam in Guru Teg Bahadur hospital

By Prashant Dev New Delhi: Term it medical insensitivity or gross negligence or a heinous scandal, a Zee News investigation has revealed that Guru Teg Bahadur hospital in New Delhi is selling unsterilized medical equipments to a private company, risking thousands of human lives in the Capital.According to the investigation, the hospital is releasing untreated used medical equipments like syringe, injections etc, to a private limited company - Vijay Waste Product. According to the norms and guidelines, medical wastes have to be sterilized within 48 hours of use. However, flouting the rules, hospital authorities are selling the untreated equipments to a private company – a step that can even spread deadly diseases like cancer and AIDS in the city. Moreover, the Autoclave machine, which treats plastic medical wastes before disposal, was not working between 10 to 23 June 2008. This is again in violation of rules as guidelines say that hospitals have to repair Autoclave machines within 48 hours. Also, during the same period of time over 2500 kgs of medical wastes had been sold to Vijay Waste Product. Though, the hospital authorities refuted all allegations of Zee News they refused to do so on camera. Medical Waste Scam However, all this is just the tip of the iceberg. The company - Vijay Waste Product, which collects the medical waste, has a dubious history too. Earlier, the company used to collect medical waste from Lokmanya Tilak hospital in New Delhi. Surprisingly, the company had took the contract for just Rs 31,000 for collecting the waste as against Rs 1,27000 demanded by other companies. Lokmanya Tilak hospital authorities scrapped the deal and blacklisted the company after Anti-corruption and Vigilance Department exposed the company. Interestingly, Vijay Waste Product bagged a similar contract to lift medical waste from the Guru Teg Bahadur hospital even after it was blacklisted by Lokmanya Tilak hospital. Not only this, this time it got the job for a mere Rs 13,000. Clearly, there is a nexus between Vijay Waste Company and the hospital authorities. As fallout of which the government is losing crores of rupees and the public is being exposed to dangerous diseases like AIDS and cancer. Adapted By: Anil Kumar Satapathy