Times of India
12 April 2009
Pune,India

Concerned citizen journalist Aesha Shah reports on the waste piling up in Kothari Hospital, showing an alarming lack of hygiene that may be leading to unhealthy conditions
Kothari hospital is one of the better known hospitals in Pune, famous for its orthopaedic services. The doctor there, Rajan Kothari is also a big name, and they charge a bomb for their treatment. I study in a library there, in the same complex on the same floor. The complex has a common terrace. I go up to the terrace a lot of times to study, so while going up I have to cross the hospital and all its filth.

The plasters of the hospital are kept on the stairs. They are piled up and not disposed for days together. So is the case with the syringe and saline bottles they use. Even the blood stained cotton wool is thrown loose on the floor. They even burn off some plasters on the terrace at times. We mainly go on the terrace to eat, but when this has to be passed, we obviously tend to loose our appetite!

The hospital uses the terrace to dry clothes, but for that too they use the pipes of saline tubes and crepe bandages all put together to make a ‘clothesline.’ And they even dry used and then washed crepe bandages at times so there is a chance they even reuse them. It is a hospital and it should understand the meaning and value of cleanliness and hygiene. If it can't do anything for the society otherwise, they can should at least maintain their hygiene and provide others with a hygienic environment. Stepping past those plasters and blood filled cottons makes me sick. Is it so difficult for a place of healing to maintain a basic standard of hygiene?

To confirm this complaint , Pune Mirrorcorrespondent Dipti Barve visited the spot. The situation was just how the citizen journalist had described.When we contacted Kothari hospital, the hospital authorities said, “We are registered with PMC’s Biomedical Waste (BMW) disposal service provider Sun Pasco. But the BMW vehicle comes only once in a fortnight. So we have to keep the collected BMW till the company vehicle come for collection.We will definitely try to solve this problem as soon as possible.”