A draft master plan on medical waste management seeks to impose new conditions and limits on storage and treatment on hospitals and other healthcare facilities in HCM City.
Prepared by the city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the plan classifies medical solid waste into five categories: infectious and pathological waste; hazardous chemical waste, radioactive waste, pressurised containers, and general waste.
Infectious and pathological waste are to be treated by incineration and chemical hazardous waste recycled after hazardous substances are extracted from it.
Pressurised containers like cylinders are to be recycled and reused.
The plan seeks to ensure that hazardous waste is not mixed with general waste and that waste collecting bags are made of polyethylene and polypropylene.
Hospitals will not be allowed to store solid waste for more than 48 hours, and they will have to arrange to move infectious waste to quarantined facilities within 72 hours.
It will be mandatory for healthcare facilities to sign contracts for transportation and treatment of their medical waste with companies licensed by city authorities.
In a meeting held last month to collect opinions, representatives of waste treatment companies suggested that the city urgently sets up safe solid waste landfills where ash from burning hazardous waste can be buried to avoid the diffusion of toxic substances in the environment.
The department estimates that 13.57 tonnes of medical solid waste are generated by healthcare facilities in the city each day, and this is set to increase to more than 80 tonnes per day in 2025.
Companies producing health food supplements discharge nearly 1,000 tonnes of solid waste per year.
The plan seeks to address several problems that have plagued medical solid waste management in the city, including the sale of untreated medical waste like used syringes.
Huynh Minh Nhut, head of the HCM City Environmental Company, said more than 7,000 health clinics have not signed contracts with companies that specialise in medical solid waste treatment.
Instead, they discharged their medical waste with general waste everyday, he said.
