Workers gather and classify medical waste at E Hospital.(Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - All health facilities in Hanoiare expected to have standard wastewater treatment systems by 2020 and fiveyears later, all hazardous medical waste from the facilities should becollected and treated properly.
These are two main targets of a medical waste treatment plan the Hanoi People’sCommittee recently approved.
According to the city’s Health Department, there arenearly 3,680 health facilities in the city. In 2018, more than 27.5tonnes of medical waste was discharged daily in the city, including 8.4 tonnesof hazardous waste.
It is expected that in 2020, about 90 tonnes of medical waste will be produceddaily and the number will hit 150 tonnes in 2030.
Vice Director of the Health Department Hoang Duc Hanh said together with theincrease in number and size of health facilities, medical waste volume was alsoincreasing sharply.
“If medical waste is not treated properly, it will leave negative impacts onsoil, water and air environment as well as human health,” he said.
Health facilities in the city have been making efforts to manage medical wasteand protect the environment. However, waste burning kilns and gas emissioncontrol systems in some hospitals operate ineffectively while wastewater treatmentsystems have degraded, Hanh said.
From 2010 to 2013, the city spent 24 billion VND (1.03 million USD) to build 16waste burning kilns in hospitals across the city but most of the kilns are nowbroken.
In Soc Son District General Hospital and Thuong Tin District GeneralHospital, people add fuel into the kilns to produce a stronger blaze to burnthe waste.
The burning also produces harmful gases, odor smell and is costly, Hanhsaid.
Now, waste burning kilns are available in only two hospitals – My Duc MentalHealth Hospital and My Duc District General Hospital, Hanh said, adding that by2020, the kilns would be closed.
A report by the city’s Natural Resources andEnvironment Department last year showed that treated wastewater in hospitalslike Saint Paul, Ha Dong General Hospital or Hanoi Maternity Hospital stillfailed to meet environmental standards.
This was due to insufficient maintenance of the systems or in other cases,because of funding shortage.
Nguyen Dinh Dinh, director of Son Tay General Hospital, said its wastewatertreatment system was built in 2007 and was now degraded.
He said the hospital had failed to arrange funding to improve the medical wastetreatment system.
Director of the Hanoi Health Department Nguyen Khac Hien told Ha Noi Moinewspaper that hospitals and other health facilities concentrated on improvingstaff’s expertise and service quality while ignoring environmental protection,particularly medical waste treatment.
Hien also said that medical workers did not pay sufficient attention whensorting, collecting and transporting medical waste.
Hien said that this year, the city Health Department would examine wastetreatment systems at public health facilities.
The department would report the city People’ Committee and ask the committee toallocate funding to improve degraded medical waste treatment systems.
To deal with hazardous medical waste, Hien said health facilities near eachother should select a shared waste storage area where their waste would betransferred to, stored and await transportation to the city’s concentratedwaste treatment areas.
Health facilities in suburban areas that generatelittle waste should connect with each other to form groups and share a majorwaste treatment system. The move will help reduce treatment costs and increaseefficiency.
For health facilities unable to transfer their wasteto the city’s concentrated waste treatment areas or the groups’ sharedtreatment system, they could build a waste treatment system within theirboundary, Hanh said.
People can help improve the medical waste treatment byputting garbage in the right places and classifying garbage at healthfacilities, the health official said.-VNS/VNA
