Waste mafias

It is difficult to believe, but apparently true, that influential mafias formed by employees of at least four major hospitals in Karachi, apparently with the connivance of police and other authorities have been running an operation which involves stealing medical waste from these facilities, recycling and repacking it and then selling it to major medical stores across Sindh. We can assume similar operations run in other provinces. The mafia has been reported to the police by the National Institute of Child Health and the Jinnah Hospital, but hospital officials say the police have failed to take action. The gangs running what is obviously a highly lucrative operation have also been able to use a fake letter from the Clifton Cantonment Board and a Cantonment Board collection vehicle to take forward their ‘business’. The other affected hospitals include the National Institute of Cardiovascular Disease and the Civil Hospital Karachi. The resale of used syringes, plastic tubing, IV bags and even cotton swabs or bandages obviously creates a severe risk of infection and the spread of communicable disease. Customers purchasing the items would have no idea they were buying unsafe equipment for use on patients. Police have admitted the mafias are essentially too powerful for them to act against and are backed by powerful political forces. Experts in hospital waste management say that hospital waste is as dangerous as nuclear waste because it carries bacteria and viruses capable of causing mass deaths. The failure of many hospitals and clinics to responsibly dispose their waste makes the task of collection easier for the mafias engaged in this business.

There are also additional risks. A judicial commission headed by a Sindh High Court judge has sent notices to the medical superintendents of federal government hospitals in Sindh to appear before it and explain how hospital waste is disposed of. The commission was set up to look into the provision of safe water and sewerage for Sindh’s citizens. There has been concern that poorly disposed of hospital waste is polluting water supply and thereby endangering lives. The Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Complex has also set up a committee to examine how the issue can be managed. Whereas the JPMC committee headed by its Executive Director is authorised to prevent the theft of hospital materials, it would seem from past examples that it is extremely difficult to control the trade given the power of the mafias. Other hospitals have also attempted to control the problem in the past. It must also be noted that poorly working incinerators add to their difficulties. But given the scale of the threat the problem poses to people everywhere, it is essential it be brought under control and a way found to stop the dangerous business of those who head these dangerous and unethical sales.