Hospitals given modern tools for waste disposal

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Six district hospitals and 17 commune health centres in the northern provinces of Cao Bang and Bac Kan have been provided with autoclave equipment for steam cleaning medical waste.

Nguyen Thanh Long, Deputy Minister of Health, said that many district hospitals and commune health centres across the country buried and burned medical waste, causing environmental pollution and affecting local residents' lives.

The district hospitals and medical centres will pass on their knowledge about the equipment to another 108 commune health centres.

This is part of a project Supporting Health Care Policy for the Poor in Cao Bang and Bac Kan sponsored by the Luxembourg Agency for Development Cooperation (Lux-Development) in co-ordination with the Vietnam Health Environment Management Agency.

The steam cleaning equipment has been set up in hospitals in Ngan Son, Ba Be and Na Ri districts in Bac Kan province and Nguyen Binh, Ha Quang and Trung Khanh districts in Cao Bang province.

Until May, the six hospitals used incinerators to burn their waste. This technology has been banned in developed countries banned because of harmful emissions.

Before training staff in the two provinces, selected staff were taught how to treat waste by experts at Ninh Binh General Hospital, Urban Environment and Industrial Joint-stock Company No 10 in Hanoi, Da Nang General Hospital and Kien Giang General Hospital.

Raja Chowdhry, a senior consultant at Lux Development, said health depatments should join hands with concerned agencies to set up policies for medical waste management.

The project helped medical workers in the two provinces access environmental friendly technology to treat medical waste and protect environment, he said.-VNA