The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has issued the Bio-Medical Waste Management (Amendment) Rules, 2019, effective 19th February 2019.
The amendment now limits the requirement to maintain a bio-medical waste register; display monthly records and annual report in it’s website only on the Health Care Facilities (bedded), which was earlier the responsibility of an “occupier” * handling bio-medical waste.
* “occupier” means a person having administrative control over the institution and the premises generating bio-medical waste, which includes a hospital, nursing home, clinic, dispensary, veterinary institution, animal house, pathological laboratory, blood bank, health care facility and clinical establishment, irrespective of their system of medicine and by whatever name they are called.
Key Highlights:
- Prior to this amendment, an Occupier handling bio-medical waste was required to maintain and update on a day to basis the bio-medical waste management register and display the monthly record on their website.
The present amendment limits this requirement only to health care units (bedded).
Hence, going forward, only health care units (bedded) are required to maintain and update on a day to basis the bio-medical waste management register and display the monthly record on their website.
- The amendment has clarified that the health care facilities would be in respect of all bedded facilities. This has been done by adding the words bedded before the words health care facilities.
In addition to the above changes, there has been a change in Schedule II, which deals with standards for treatment and disposal of bio-medical waste.
Prior to this amendment, the Health Care Facilities having less than 10 beds were directed to install Sewage Treatment Plant within 31st December 2019. Now, the existing requirement has been done away with and the Health Care Facilities having less than 10 beds are required to comply with the output discharge standard for liquid waste by 31st December, 2019.
Source: Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
