Over 350 Clinics and Hospitals in Goa May Face Closure

Facing the brunt of the notice served to over 350 clinics and hospitals in the state who may face closure if they fail to apply for required permissions from the Goa State Pollution Control Board for disposal of bio-medical waste. It is a huge number and it shows how many such places were operating on the state without following the safety standards issued by the GSPCB.

The Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) has so far identified and issued show cause notices to 350 clinics and hospitals for failing to obtain the necessary permission from them for disposal of bio-medical waste. The show cause notices have been issued under Section 5 of the Environment Protection Act.

Speaking to the Times of India, Chairman of the Board, Ganesh Shetgaonkar, said, “We have issued over 350 show cause notices to individual clinics, small and big hospitals for not applying for authorization and consent to operate under the water act and air act for disposal of bio-medical waste.” “If they do not apply for the authorization and consent to operate then we will issue closure notices as per the law,” he added.

Further according to the report, most of these clinics have failed to file their returns before the board giving details about the biomedical waste generated by them. ‘The last date to file the returns is June 30 every year,” says Shetgaonkar, pointing out that while individual clinics have to apply for authorization, hospitals have to apply for both authorization and consent to operate.

According to the source, for Panaji and Vasco the Board had authorized a service provider to collect and dispose of biomedical waste generated at Goa Medical College. The rest of the State’s hospitals and clinics dispose of their waste in their own facilities.

To ensure that the process is understood and followed correctly, on May 27, the Board held a meeting with doctors to explain the procedure to apply for the permissions online.

Further, according to The Times of India, during the meeting, Chairman of the biomedical waste disposal cell, IMA-Goa, Dr Shekar Salkar, requested GSPCB to reach an interim agreement for biomedical waste management via service providers to the rest of the state too, as some healthcare facilities are unable to implement on-site management of their waste due to various restraints.