The Hindu : Hospital interiors turn dumping yards

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 28, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Hospital interiors turn dumping yards

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM April 27. Alongside the growing development needs of major departments at the Medical College is the incredulous phenomenon of prime space along the corridors and wards being used as dumping space for discarded materials.

Presenting a rather poor case-sheet on the institution's utilisation of barely available space, is the sight of valuable space in the hospital interiors being relegated into a dumping yard for all sorts of wares, from equipment in disrepair to broken buckets and shabby bed-sheets. It is estimated that at least 25 per cent of utilitarian space is appropriated by discarded materials.

A few years back, the then Health Secretary, Gopal Krishna Pillai, had seized the initiative to set things right.

A Government Order (GO (MS) No. 132/93 H&FWD dt. 19-11- 93) gave shape to a condemnation committee in each Medical College with the Principal as chairman and comprising the Hospital Superintendent, RMO/ARMO, Nursing Superintendent and Pharmacy chief. This committee was vested with full powers to dispose of all consumable items which are life-expired after they are surveyed and approved for condemnation. The condemned items were to be destroyed or auctioned by the Superintendent and the matter reported to the Government through the DME.

The GO also refers to the disposal of medical equipment which are not consumable by allowing the hospital authorities to co-opt a technical committee (experts from the public sector units) for the technical evaluation of unserviceable equipment and to determine whether the same was beyond economic repair and fit for disposal/condemnation. Importantly, the GO had declared that once the technical panel had certified an equipment as fit for disposal/condemnation, the book value of the item would be treated as zero.

The Superintendent was required to prepare list of unserviceable equipment and the technical panel would inspect equipment records and recommend its decision within three months of receipt of request. The governing rules empower Hospital Superintendents to dispose off by public auction all medical equipment certified for disposal/condemnation by the experts' panel.

A GO came out in 1994 (GO (MS) 20/94) which pointed to the large number of empty bottle and packing cases accumulating in Government hospitals and dispensaries which was affecting hygiene and leading to space wastage. The main reason was attributed to the non-availability of the book value of the items issued years ago. To surmount this, the Government even fixed the life period for perishable articles ranging from aprons (3 years) and leggings/stockings (3 years) to mosquito nets (5 years) and flannel blankets (10 years).

However, authorities have averred that the procedures are cumbersome and involve a multi-member evaluation panel. For auctioning items valued above the Superintendent's limit, Government permission has to be obtained. "Going through all the technicalities, we cannot manage more than two auctions a year," a former superintendent remarked.

It is also pointed out that the jostle for extra space among vying departments often resembles a game of musical chairs. Here is a sample extracted from the minutes of a meeting held by the MCH authorities in August, 1998.

``The 1000 MA room shall be handed over to the Physical Medicine department along with the office of the Nursing Superintendent (opposite the X-ray room), the first hall of the Surgical Stores Department returned to Clinical Pharmacy, Orthopaedics shall surrender one room occupied by them to the Nursing Superintendent in lieu of the space allotted to Physical Medicine.''

Under the reallocation planned then, the space occupied by Physical Medicine would be split at the centre pillar and the portion north to it (facing the verandah) handed over to Radio-diagnosis while the portion facing south (towards the IP block entrance side) shall be vested with Orthopaedics. Then, Radio-diagnosis shall keep the open space on the northern side of the verandah adjacent to the new block comprising surgical Casualty, east of the room for the proposed Casualty Medical Officer.

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