A number of hospitals and polyclinics in one of the districts of Jeddah have been found violating rules and regulations regarding safe disposal of hospital waste. The mayoralty on Friday received a report from a Saudi national, Hamza Hasan, indicating presence of hazardous medical wastes in a garbage dumpster in Al-Azizia District. According to Hasan, one of the government hospitals in the district had dumped bags of medical solutions, used syringes, oxygen masks and bloodstained bandages in a garbage dumpster near his house. He told the relevant officials that it was not the first incident. He had already contacted the hospital officials regarding the issue but to no avail. Responding to the complaint, the mayoralty dispatched four teams to clean up the mess under the supervision of Ayman Al-Zahrani, Assistant Director General for Cleaning Projects, to the site in question. Subsequently, the medical wastes, which were strewn all around the dumpster, were properly disposed off and the entire area was sterilized. The inspection tour by Al-Zahrani was allocated for following up violations by government and private polyclinics including dumping of medical wastes in garbage dumpsters. The erring healthcare facilities were informed of their violations and asked to abide by the rules and regulations During the tour that covered Al-Azizia and Bani Malik districts, the cleaning teams found syringes, used bandages and clinical garments in the public garbage dumpster in front of a private polyclinic in Al-Azizia District and another in Bani Malik. Similar medical wastes were found in garbage dumpsters elsewhere. The mayoralty has urged all the government and private hospitals and polyclinics to dispose their medical wastes properly in conformity with the relevant laws. A source in the mayoralty said that steps were under way to make the government and private hospitals sign contracts with specialist companies for proper disposal of medical wastes.
