Are we buying hospital trash over and over again?

‘Gang of employees’ of JPMC, NICVD, NICH and CHK running business of collecting waste including used syringes and test tubes from these hospitals and reselling them

An influential and politically-backed gang of employees of Karachi’s four major public hospitals is allegedly involved in stealing medical waste from these facilities that is then recycled, repacked and resold at medical stores in the city and supplied to public and private hospitals across Sindh too.

Using Afghan garbage collectors, the gang comprising employees of the Jinnah hospital, the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, the National Institute of Children Health and the Civil Hospital Karachi collects laboratory waste, consumables of operation theatres and various wards, and the plastic material and cotton used on patients at the burns and other wards. This hospital waste is recycled, repacked and sold again, spreading infectious diseases.

“The mafia involved in the lifting of medical waste is so powerful that the managements of these hospitals are unable to have an FIR registered against its members,” Dr Liaquat Ali, a senior medical officer at the NICH, told The News on Wednesday.

“The mafia also blackmails police officials, who are helpless against it,” he added.

Several officials of the NICH and the JPMC told The News that despite several applications sent to the Saddar police and senior police officials for the registration of cases against the people behind the lifting of medical waste, no action had been taken so far.

“Recently, the mafia used a fake letter of the Clifton Cantonment Board to collect medical waste of the NICH every morning and also used a fake cantonment board vehicle for this purpose,” Dr Ali said.

“When we approached the Clifton Cantonment Board, they said the letter was forged and they were not interested in collecting garbage from any public or private hospital.”

After verifying that the medical waste mafia was behind the forged letter, the NICH sent an application to the Saddar police for the registration of an FIR against two men, Ayub and Ishaque, but the police refused to book them. “The Saddar SHO was intimidated as the mafia opened a case against him at the anti-corruption department and refused to register an FIR,” Dr Ali said.

JPMC 

Similarly, the hospital waste of the JPMC is shifted to the warehouses at the Shershah scrap market. Dozens of Afghan garbage collectors gather plastic and other medical waste from the hospital and provide it to the mafia.

“Today I had two Afghan nationals, who were picking up medical waste from the hospital, arrested by the Saddar police,” JPMC executive director Dr Seemin Jamali told The News.

She added that the mafia had breached the wall of the JPMC from where Afghan garbage collectors entered the hospital and collected the waste. Dr Jamali disclosed that Afghan garbage collectors were being paid Rs5,000 every month for gathering ‘useable’ medical waste from the JPMC. “The waste is first shifted to Bizerta Lines behind the hospital. There it is loaded onto mini trucks and shifted for recycling, repacking and transportation.”

The JPMC administration also wrote a letter to the Saddar police station for the registration of an FIR against the Afghan garbage collectors for stealing hazardous medical waste but the police were yet to register the case by the time this report was filed.

CHK

At the Civil Hospital Karachi too ‘useable’ medical waste including used test tubes and bottles for collecting blood, stool and urine samples, plastic material including syringes, bags, and masks and cotton are collected and shifted to warehouses on the outskirts of the city for recycling and repacking.

Despite having an incinerator, the CHK administration is not taking steps to stop the theft of medical waste.

As hazardous as nuclear waste

Dr Khurram Ahmed, an expert in hospital waste management, said medical waste was as hazardous as nuclear waste because it contained bacteria and viruses having the potential to cause mass deaths. “This waste should be treated and disposed of like nuclear waste,” he added.

Dr Ahmed said 95 percent of hospital waste contained lethal bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms but it was being thrown away like household waste. Many of these items, he said, were being washed and repacked, spreading Hepatitis B and C and other deadly diseases. “The Sindh Environmental Protection Agency and the health department are both to blame for this as it is their responsibility to ensure proper disposal of hospital waste and take action against the people who are stealing and recycling hazardous medical waste.”

Committee formed

JPMC executive director Dr Jamali has formed a nine-member committee headed by a senior associate professor of the Jinnah Sindh Medical University to look into the theft of hospital waste and take measures for its proper disposal.

She said the committee headed by Prof Muhammad Anwar of the JSMU and co-chaired by Dr Zeeshan Ali was authorised to prevent the theft of hospital waste and assigned the task of making the incinerator at the hospital functional at the earliest.