Patna, Feb. 25: Admitting that the sanitation conditions at Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) are not up to the mark, the state government said it would chalk out a new tender format before availing the cleaning contract to private parties in the coming financial year.

Amarjeet Sinha, the principal secretary of the state health department, said PMCH was in a pathetic condition when it came to sanitation even though the government was spending Rs 22 lakh per month only for cleaning the hospital.

“Three agencies were involved in the cleaning work and there were certain wards and buildings under them. However, they have failed to perform. It is probably because we did not have strict yardsticks and guidelines in place,” he said.

“A rigorous assessment of the tender document will be done this year before entering into an agreement with the private contractors. We will look into each and every point like how many times the floor has to be wiped, when washrooms and toilets need to be cleaned, how many times garbage has to be collected, what measures they have to take and number of employees required for the work —would be specified in the tender document from this year onwards. This will definitely make the agencies more responsible,” Sinha said.

He added that the department heads of the college would be empowered to supervise the work carried out by the cleaning contractors.

Recently, the hospital administration had issued notices to two agencies for failing to maintain cleanliness in some of the wards of the hospital. The technical support institution of National Health System Resource Centre along with National Rural Health Mission has also highlighted glaring gaps in the sanitation standard of the hospital in a report on PMCH.