A hospital amid garbage!
If an open dumpster is allowed to exist near the very entrance of a hospital, and if it emanates foul stench all the time, how can you trust that hospital to ensure the good health of its patients? This is precisely what a visitor to the Khulna General Hospital will notice these days. Beside the dumpster, the entire vicinity of the hospital is littered with waste material, including organic waste that rot fast. It needs no emphasising that the stench makes breathing an ordeal for the patients, hospital visitors, passers-by, and even residents in the surrounding areas.
A report by this daily on January 12 depicts this sordid picture of a Khulna City Corporation dumpster placed right on the opposite of the main gate of the hospital, where all sorts of garbage and organic waste are dumped on a regular basis. These not only emit foul odour, but also provide a perfect feeding and breeding ground for disease-carrying insects like cockroaches, flies and mosquitoes, as well as rats. Hospital staff and local people invariably dump waste in the container. Often, they throw garbage from a distance, and as a result, half of it falls outside the dumpster.
More alarmingly, besides kitchen waste from nearby residences, untreated medical waste is also thrown into the bin, to be scattered away by scavengers like crows, cats, and dogs. Hundreds of people, including little children, who go there to get tested, vaccinated or treated for serious ailments, are forced to breathe in the toxic air as long as they are in the hospital.
This is particularly disturbing. At a time when health experts and even government authorities are urging people to observe certain hygiene practices to stay safe from Covid-19, a hospital—a public one, no less—is encouraging or rather forcing people to do the opposite. In fact, the garbage bin is situated near the waiting area of the hospital's Covid-19 unit, where hundreds of people come every day to get tested, treated or vaccinated. Even the local administration, which has a duty to ensure that no such things happen, has been equally silent about this macabre spectacle.
Unfortunately, the problem of unregulated waste dumping is one shared by many other hospitals and health centres in our country. We have no way of scientifically assessing their impact, but experts have repeatedly warned against such irresponsible conduct. There are many modern technologies for collection and destruction of household or hospital waste in a safe and hygienic way. The Khulna General Hospital authorities should invest more time and money in finding the best way to keep their premises clean. A general hospital should ideally be located in a hygienic and well-maintained area, and proper waste disposal should be a priority at the very outset.
Comments