JASNS to carry out enforcement on 29 dialysis centres - Exco

SEREMBAN, March 8 (Bernama) --The Negeri Sembilan Environment Department (JASNS) will carry out enforcement on all 29 private hemodialysis centres in the state to ensure that clinical wastes at the premises are disposed of according to the regulations.

State Health, Environment, Cooperatives and Consumerism committee chairman S. Veerapan said the matter arose after he received complaints from residents about an illegal dumpsite in Kampung Sendayan on Tuesday.

"An inspection at the location found 11 packages containing discarded clinical wastes such as needles and items contaminated with blood, suspected to be from a dialysis centre," he told a press conference here today.

He said further investigations tracked the wastes back to a dialysis centre at Seremban 2 and a scheduled waste management company which had been licenced by JASNS. 

Subsequently he said the premises owner and disposal contractor were ordered to clear the wastes from the site and legal action would be taken against them.

On another development Veerapan said so far only three deaths were recorded among former patients of Mawar Medical Centre (MMC) who had been referred to private hemodialysis centres and the Tuanku Ja'afar Hospital Seremban, following the closure of MMC last month.

"Those who died were patients with end stage renal failure who were also suffering from kidney failure, heart disease, diabetes and hypertension. 

"For the record, throughout 2018 there were over 40 deaths among MMC patients before the hospital was directed to close down in February," he said.

As such Veerapan said news which have gone viral on social media claiming that several former MMC patients died after they were referred to government and private hospitals, following MMC closure, were baseless allegations.

-- BERNAMA