Introduction

As per the act passed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 1986 & notified the Bio Medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules in July 1998, it is the duty of every "occupier", (in the case of Coral Hospitals, the Director, Coral Hospitals) i.e. a person who has the control over the institution or its premises, to take all steps to ensure that waste generated is handled without any adverse effect to human health and environment.

The biomedical waste management policy followed at Coral Hospitals is as per the Biomedical Waste Management Rules 2016, notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India as per the gazette notification dated 28th March 2016. Prior to this notification, Coral Hospitals had been following the Bio-medical Waste (Management & Handling) Rules 1998 notified by the same ministry. At present, the biomedical waste management at Coral Hospitals has been outsourced to a common biomedical waste management facility, Hoswin Incinerator Pvt. Ltd. Indore.

Definitions

Hospital waste: refers to all waste, biological or non-biological that is discarded and not intended for further use. Bio-medical waste means any waste, which is generated during the diagnosis, treatment or immunization of human beings or animals or in research activities pertaining thereto or in the production or testing of biologicals, and including categories mentioned in Schedule I, of the BMW rules, 2016.

Salient Features

The major salient features of BMW Management Rules, 2016 include the following

• The ambit of the rules has been expanded to include vaccination camps, blood donation camps, surgical camps or any other healthcare activity;
• Phase-out the use of chlorinated plastic bags, gloves and blood bags within two years;
• Pre-treatment of the laboratory waste, microbiological waste, blood samples and blood bags through disinfection orsterilization on-site in the manner as prescribed by WHO or NACO;
• Provide training to all its health care workers and immunize all health workers regularly;
• Establish a Bar-Code System for bags or containers containing bio-medical waste for disposal:
• Report major accidents:
• The new rules prescribe more stringent standards for incinerator to reduce the emission of pollutants in environment:
• Bio-medical waste has been classified in to 4 categories instead of 10 to improve the segregation of waste at source;
• Procedure to get authorization simplified. Automatic authorization for bedded hospitals. The validity of authorization synchronized with validity of consent orders for Bedded HCFs. One time Authorization for Non-bedded HCFs;
• No occupier shall establish on-site treatment and disposal facility, if a service of 'common bio-medical waste treatment facility is available at distance of seventy-five kilometers.
• Operator of a common bio-medical waste treatment and disposal facility to ensure the timely collection of bio-medical waste from the HCFs and assist the HCFs in conduct of training.