Eyesore for patients at Amritsar's Guru Nanak Dev Hospital

A hospital should have an atmosphere that promotes healing and recovery of patients by minimising stress and trauma and providing clean, well-maintained spaces and prioritise patient safety and comfort. However, when you enter Guru Nanak Dev Hospital (GNDH), the prime health facility in the holy city, a huge garbage dump just opposite the emergency ward welcomes you.

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Even as the hospital has outsourced the cleanliness work to a private agency, plastic mixed waste can still be seen littered in the open space of the hospital’s sprawling complex.

“It is mandatory that hospitals maintain rigorous cleaning protocols to prevent the spread of any infection. But it is disheartening to see such poor state of affairs as far as cleanliness in the hospital complex is concerned,” said Raman Kumar, who had come to attend to a patient in the hospital. During monsoon, the garbage dump can turn into a source of infectious diseases, he added.

Plastic garbage could also be seen littered in the green compost pits constructed opposite the newly constructed state cancer institute building.

Nevertheless, the problem is not because of the negligence of authorities alone. But the people and attendants coming with the patients are also said to be responsible for it. Hospital authorities pointed out that usually there are four to five attendants with a patient, who bring plastic waste with them. The 1,500-bed health facility is visited by over 10,000 people daily.

“Over 90 per cent of the waste generated here is in the form of plastic bags. We have told a number times to the people, majority of whom belong to middle, lower middle class and economically weaker section, coming to the hospital not to bring plastic material with them which they threw in the open spaces. The hospital collects the waste near its outer wall along Majitha Road,” said Dr Karamjit Singh, Medical Superintendent, GNDH.

He further said it was the responsibility of the municipal corporation authorities to get the garbage lifted from outside the emergency ward, which they do on every alternate day. “We have requested them to lift the garbage on a daily basis,” he added.

The GNDH has outsourced the cleanliness work to a private agency PESCO (Punjab Ex-serviceman Corporation), but they are responsible for the cleanliness of the wards and inside the hospital premises.