The Nainital district magistrate Deependra Kumar Chaudhari made a surprise visit to two private hospitals in Haldwani to check the disposal of biomedical waste. Visiting the Neelkanth and Sajeevani hospitals located along Rampur Road here late on Tuesday evening, the district magistrate found waste dumped in the open. Various biomedical items, empty medicine packing and other items were found dumped in the open near the medical store in the Neelkanth hospital.

Expressing dissatisfaction at the improper dumping of waste in the hospital ground, the District Magistrate called the medical store owner. The owner was unable to provide satisfactory answers to the DM’s queries apart from which he also failed to show proper record of the garbage being collected by an organisation. Chaudhari directed the Haldwani municipal corporation health officer Dr Tuhin Kumar to issue a notice. At the Sanjeevani hospital, the records pertaining to garbage collection were reportedly unclear.

The district magistrate directed the municipal health officer to conduct inspection of all hospitals, dispensaries and clinics located within the municipal corporation limits and submit a detailed report to him in 15 days. He also directed the chief medical officer to ensure that all the government hospitals too in the district are registered with the organisation involved in collection of the biomedical waste. Earlier, the district magistrate held a meeting with doctors and hospital managers. He stressed on the need for ensuring the scientific and efficient disposal of biomedical waste. He said that the task of collecting and disposing biomedical waste in the state has been allocated to an organisation which tackles the biomedical waste generated at hospitals, clinics, dispensaries and medical stores. The company collects and biomedical waste and disposes it at a plant situated in Rudrapur.