December 22, 2024

Nishtar Hospital’s hazardous waste being sold in open market

Capital Calling

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The contractor picks up hazardous waste items and takes it to stores where instead of destroying it, it further sells them to people who are allegedly accused of repackaging these items.

Disturbing news has emerged from the historic Nishtar Hospital. ‘Baithak’ newspaper has reported that the latest case in a series of scandals involving the administration deals with hospital waste.

It has been reported that the newly installed incinerator plant in Nishtar Hospital Multan was left at the mercy of the contractor. Even though the plant was active, the contractor built two stores to sell the hospital’s waste.

Nishtar Hospital administration is not taking any money from the contractor. The newspaper reported that waste management staff has been provided to Nishtar free of cost by the contractor and the job of this staff is to lift the garbage from Nishtar Hospital.

In return for this contract, he takes hundreds of tons of waste daily from the incinerator plant and sells it in open market.

The contractor picks up hazardous waste items and takes it to stores where instead of destroying it, it further sells them to people who are allegedly accused of repackaging these items.

It has also been learned from the sources that the contractor pays rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000 per month to the sanitation workers who are engaged in Nishtar and due to the low number of their employees in the hospital, the condition of the washrooms is very bad and there are piles of dirt.

It seems that the mafia that has captured this hospital is more powerful than the provincial caretaker setup. Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi has repeatedly visited the hospital and issued on-the-spot orders to resolve the issues.

Despite all the efforts of caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi to improve the delivery service in Nishtar Hospital, Nishtar Hospital has reported the highest number of deaths of dengue patients across the province.

Secretary Health Punjab Ali Jan took strict notice of the situation and directed the hospital administration to take other measures along with imposing duties of professor level doctors for the treatment of serious dengue patients being treated in high dependency unit and intensive care unit/intensive care unit (ICU).

We appeal to the concerned authorities to take notice of the situation and stop the corrupt elements in Nishtar who are playing with the lives of the people. The issue of hospital waste management is of utmost importance. This should be taken as a top priority.