Hospitals Call For An 'Authority' To Monitor Biomedical Work Management

While the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has begun serving notices to various hospitals in Mumbai to implement the Bio-Medical Waste (BMW) Management and Handling Rules 2000, the hospitals in the city call for an external or internal authority in each hospital to monitor the issues related to biomedical management.

"We are doing our best to generate awareness on BMW management. Apart from regular awareness programmes, we conduct on-the-spot and periodical BMW management awareness programmes for nurses, doctors and class 4 employees. Since a hospital runs for all 24 hours, the work is divided into three shifts. Hence, it is not possible to monitor the doctors and nurses who are in charge of segregating the bio-medical wastes all the time. So there should be an authority, external or internal, to look after the whole issue," said, Dr Gita Nataraj, Convenor of the Infection Control Committee, KEM Hospital.

A week earlier HC had ordered MPCB to file notices against the hospital that are fluting the BMW management rules. The Brihanmumbai Municipa Corporation (BMC) run KEM Hospital was also asked to improve their performance within six to eight weeks.

"The segregation of BMW usually takes place during the usual check-ups or surgeries by the doctors/nurses concerned. Hence, a violation in segregating the whole thing point towards the negligence of this well educated section in complying with the rules set by the authorities," Dr Nataraj said. In this context, the demand to appoint a new internal / external authority is expected to help the situation improve.

Emphasising the need to reorganise the BMW management system, Dr Natraj also pointed out the problems associated with disposing of the category no. 4 sharp wastes like syringes, needles, etc. "Since the existing disposal methods takes a lot of time, the technicians who are handling the sharps are not sticking the rules."

(Ref: The Chronicle Pharmabiz dated 14, February 2008)

In a bid to keep pace with the hospitals in the West, the New Apollo Hospital at Bangalore has invested Rs 5 crore for equipments to perform bloodless surgery. This is the first centre in the country to offer the procedure which has already conducted 100 bloodless surgeries on patients who underwent high-end surgical interventions including by-pass.

The biggest advantage of the bloodless surgery is that the process will reduce the transmission of infections and prevent loss of blood. "We have invested Rs 5 crore to install the Holimum Laser and Harmonic scalper which is used for dissection of tissues. The cell saver system was an in-house availability at one of our facilities in the country and this was transferred to Bangalore facility", Dr Umesh Gupta, director - medical services, chief quality officer, Apollo Hospitals Enterprises said.

Globally bloodless surgery is now an accepted procedure becoming popular at super-specialty tertiary care units. While there are 15 bloodless surgery centres in the USA, three in Canada and one in China, it was the Apollo Hospitals Group which made the initiative for India.

"We have the most advanced anesthetics supported by a team of specialists who can handle the most complex of situations and a multi-pronged approach which would use minimally invasive surgery, pharmaceutical agents, volume expanders, micro sampling and advanced cell saver system to totally avoid the use of blood transfusion. Hopefully these techniques would become popular in India in the next few years," Dr Umapathy, COO, Apollo Hospitals.

"The transmission of AIDS and other viruses through blood is one of the main reasons why doctors thought of techniques which will not involve blood transfusion. We believe the bloodless surgery centre at Apollo Hospitals will be a pioneering effort, which will do away with the common practice of requiring blood donations before surgery. Elderly patients and those living without family members face difficulty in finding others who can donate blood on their behalf. Patients opting for bloodless surgery will now not be required to face such hassles. With minimal incision surgery and various other advanced techniques we are able to offer the best practices and unmatched quality care." pointed out Dr. Umesh Gupta, director medical services and chief quality officer for the Apollo Group.