EDMC outsources hospital sanitation

Corpn finds its own staff not up to mark

Following in the footsteps of other major hospitals in the city, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation has decided to engage professional private agencies for the sanitation work in Swami Dayanand Hospital – the only civic body-run hospital in east Delhi.  

The corporation officials said the decision of hiring a private agency is aimed at improving the sanitation level in the hospital, which would soon be adding a dedicated 120-bed Maternity Child and Welfare ward. With the addition of more beds, the total number of beds at the hospital would increase to 350.

“Several Delhi and central government hospitals have hired private agencies for the job as maintaining highest level of sanitation in hospitals is a must,” said EDMC commissioner S S Yadav.

“Presently, several factors like inadequate manpower at class 4 level due to long vacancies, poor turnout of staff for duty and increase in leave benefits affect sanitation work. Therfore, we have decided to hire a professional for the job,” Yadav added.

The agency will be selected through competitive bidding, the commissioner added.
Located on the outskirts of Delhi, the hospital caters to around 20 lakh people in north-east Delhi, apart from adjoining areas of NCR.

The health department officials said the agency will be required to dust beds, change linen, clean patient’s accessories and dispose of bio-medical waste.

It will also have to report and receive articles from laundry and co-ordinate with the nursing staff in the ward, apart from handling samples for laboratory.

The corporation has earmarked a corpus of Rs 2.9 crore for two years for hiring the agency. The offficials said the expenditure will be governed by Minimum Wages Act and other prevailing orders issued by the Delhi government.

“Funding is not an issue. We will be quoting the estimated cost. However, we are confident that the cost would be less than the estimated cost as we would select the lowest bidder,” said Yadav.

The officials said Expression of Interest for the project would be issued soon.