Islamabad-Token money for the establishment of shredding and sterilization unit at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) has been received and the project will be completed in few months, Vice Chancellor Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University said on Monday.
Talking to The Nation Vice Chancellor (VC) Dr Javed Akram said that PC-1 of the project was approved by the government; however, No Objection Certificate (NoC) from Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (PEPA) has not been received yet.
“The letter was written to PEPA and hopefully NOC will be received soon,” he said.
He said the project will be non-incinerator and environment friendly so issuance of NOC from PEPA will be not an issue.
Meanwhile, VC SZABMU was unable to inform about the details of token money; however, he informed that total project will cost around Rs 30 million.
The project under the title ‘Establishment of Unit of shredding, sterilization and disposal of Medical Waste at PIMS’ was received at planning commission in the month of May and was recommended for consideration in September.
According to the documents available to The Nation, hospital administration had proposed 12 months for the completion of the project, but till now the pace of work on project has remained slow.
Replying to query Dr Javed Akram said, “The time duration for the completion of the project has not prolonged and it will be completed in few months.”
Contrary to the full project title submitted in Planning Commission as Medical Waste Unit, VC SZABMU said that it will be the ‘Shredding Unit’ for which the site has been allocated adjacent to PIMS.
Dr Javed also informed The Nation new staff will be also hired for this new project.
“Around 20 to 25 number of staff with technical abilities relevant with field will be hired,” he said.
But, according to documents available to The Nation, hospital administration had proposed new 64 posts of waste management staff and the planning commission had rejected the proposal and commented that operation of the plant will be outsourced.
The hospital administration in its proposal for the project had said that PIMS was paying about 6.132 million per annum for disposal of around 219000 kg/year hospital infectious waste to the private contractor who uses the crude method of dumping for the disposal of waste which was not environmental friendly.
But as per new project nearly 600 kg infectious and 1800 non-infectious hospital waste from the five components of hospital would be collected, prepared and disposed off daily.
The trained hospital waste management staff will provide round the clock services with ensuring the quality. For which the latest and modern equipment of non-incinerator technology was proposed.
The hospital administration in its proposed plan after the completion of the project aims it to expand to process hospital waste from other hospitals of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) to generate revenue also.
