Pollution control board to serve notice on Sion Hospital

The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) will on Friday serve a notice on the civic-run Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital, better known as Sion Hospital, seeking an explanation for the shabby state of its mortuary, which has been functioning with a faulty drainage system since Monday.

Blood that has oozed out of corpses was found to have leaked on to the footpath outside the mortuary, exposing pedestrians to harmful bacteria, as reported by The Asian Age on Wednesday. According to MPCB field officer Sanjay Bhosale, “After the news (of the blood from the corpses leaking out on to the streets) reached us, we personally went and inspected the complete the situation. There is a drainage problem at the hospital, apart from the menace of rats. This is in violation of the bio-waste disposable Act of 2011. We will serve the hospital a notice on Friday keeping in mind the provisions of this Act.”

A hospital generates various kinds of waste from its mortuary. These include bandages, cotton, soiled linen, body parts and sharp objects such as needles, syringes, scalpels, etc. All these have a strong potential of carrying infections and should be properly discarded and disposed of to prevent contamination and infection from spreading.

If a hospital is found violating the provisions of these rules, MPCB can file a complaint under section 15 of the EP Act, which provides for imprisonment that may extend to up to 5 years, along with a fine. MPCB can also issue directions for the closure of any defaulting hospital/clinic/institution under section 5 of EP Act, as per powers delegated by the central government.