Difficulty in handling medical waste

(Baonghean) - Environmental pollution from medical facilities directly affects people's daily life, production, and health. However, solving this problem is still very difficult, requiring synchronous investment...

There are many medical facilities in the province that have long caused environmental pollution during their operations, affecting people's lives and production.

At Nghe An Tuberculosis and Lung Hospital, according to the reflection of people in hamlets 4, 5, 6, Nghi Van commune, Nghi Loc district, for decades they have lived with pollution, in which hamlet 6 (the hamlet closest to the provincial Tuberculosis and Lung Hospital) suffers the most.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong, hamlet 6 said: “The wastewater from the hospital flows down to Dong Doi Ky, it is black and stinky, people come back from farming and get itchy, sores on their hands and feet, so for a long time now, people have had to leave this whole field fallow”. Ms. Phuong’s family also owns 9 meters of rice field in this field and has left it fallow for many years even though her family’s field is only 2.6 sao.

Mr. Dang Xuan Phuc - Secretary of the Party Cell of Hamlet 6 confirmed: “Environmental pollution from the Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Hospital affects the lives of local people. Every day, a large amount of wastewater is discharged from the hospital into the environment. When the weather is hot or rainy, the fishy smell is very unpleasant. Due to the severe pollution, the whole hamlet (122 households) built tanks to store rainwater for drinking, while some other households with difficult conditions accept drinking well water. More than 3 hectares of land in Dong Doi Ky - located next to the hospital fence has been abandoned for nearly 10 years.”

The wastewater treatment system of Nghe An Tuberculosis and Lung Hospital is degraded, affecting the quality of wastewater treatment.

Mr. Dau Quang Minh - Director of the Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Hospital, admitted: The hospital's wastewater treatment system was invested and put into use in 2008. However, due to some technical errors, according to the monitoring sessions of the environmental service unit, there are still some indicators exceeding the permitted standards that have not been resolved. The hospital has also submitted many reports to the Provincial People's Committee and the Department of Health requesting support for upgrading and repairing, but so far it has not been implemented. This is the reason why the hospital has not been able to get out of the list of facilities causing serious pollution. Recently, the Department of Health has put the Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Hospital on the list of hospitals receiving support for hospital waste treatment from the World Bank. While waiting for the project, the hospital has also tried to overcome this by building an additional system of canals to carry treated wastewater to an open area, avoiding direct discharge into the fields; at the same time, planting a system of trees inside and outside the hospital campus; Organize waste sorting in departments, organize contracts with Nghe An Urban Environment One Member Co., Ltd. to collect, transport and treat domestic waste, and directly treat hospital waste and change the burning time to be more reasonable.

At Nam Dan General Hospital, Southwest Regional General Hospital, Nghe An Oncology Hospital... pollution has occurred during the waste treatment process due to shortcomings in the investment process. For example, Nam Dan General Hospital had a medical waste treatment system that was damaged at times, and the chimney was low, affecting the environment; or the two Nghe An Oncology Hospital and Southwest Regional General Hospital were newly invested in but due to financial difficulties, they have not yet built a waste treatment system...

According to the statistical report of the health sector, the whole province currently has 17 provincial hospitals, 17 district hospitals, 9 private hospitals, 3 industry and military hospitals; 6 centers with beds, commune-level medical facilities... with a total of 6,491 beds in the whole province. Just a simple calculation, on average, each hospital bed generates 1.69 kg of waste/day, including 0.24 kg of hazardous waste, so every day the hospitals in the province generate 12 tons of medical waste, including 1.7 tons of hazardous waste, accounting for 14.1%.

Hospitals: Nghe An General Hospital, Nghe An Oncology Hospital, Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital... are assessed to be the hospitals with the highest level of hazardous waste discharge, including infectious waste, chemical waste (spoiled or expired pharmaceuticals, disinfectants, chemicals containing heavy metals...), cytotoxic chemicals for chemotherapy to treat cancer... The current solution to handle the waste problem is overloaded and inadequate due to outdated technology and equipment. Hospitals in Vinh City are concentrated incinerated at the incinerator of Nghe An General Hospital; 9 district-level hospitals use on-site incinerators; general hospitals in the Northwest, Southwest regions and 20 district medical centers, other medical facilities and commune-level health stations are treating hazardous medical waste by manual burning or landfill.

Regarding wastewater, only 28 provincial and district hospitals have invested in wastewater treatment systems, 10 hospitals do not have wastewater treatment systems or have wastewater treatment systems but do not meet environmental standards. The inadequacy in environmental treatment at hospitals in 2003 (the time of Decision 64/2003/QD-TTg) Nghe An had 3 hospitals "listed" as facilities causing serious environmental pollution, including: Nghe An General Hospital, Nghe An Tuberculosis and Lung Hospital, Vinh City General Hospital. Up to now (after 10 years), only Vinh City General Hospital has completed the remediation program, the remaining 3 units are still on the "list" of Decision 64.

According to Mr. Ho Sy Dung - Head of the Provincial Department of Environmental Protection, in general, wastewater from hospitals is mostly treated but does not meet standards. Regarding medical waste, some hospitals have classified waste at source, however, the process of treating medical waste is mainly buried or using degraded and damaged incinerators, which is also causing environmental pollution.

Thus, the current difficulty in handling environmental protection at medical facilities is the lack of capital to invest in waste treatment systems that ensure environmental standards. It is known that the Provincial People's Committee has recently issued Decision No. 2532/QD-UBND.DTXD, dated June 20, 2013, approving the medical waste management plan for the period 2013 - 2015. This is the basis for putting medical waste management at medical facilities into order, contributing to reducing the generation of waste from medical facilities into the environment, causing environmental pollution.

On the other hand, through the project "Support for hospital waste treatment" of the Ministry of Health from WB loan capital, 2 hospitals have been approved to implement the project, namely Tuberculosis - Lung Hospital and Southwest Regional General Hospital. Particularly, Nghe An General Hospital has a project to invest in a medical solid waste treatment system using European technology with an investment of 5 billion VND. The Department also proposed the ODA - German project to invest in building a liquid waste treatment system for 4 general hospitals: Quynh Luu, Dien Chau, Do Luong, Tan Ky that do not have a wastewater treatment system; proposed the Provincial People's Committee to allocate funds in 2013 - 2014 to invest in building 12 incinerators for hospitals that have been damaged or do not have incinerators.... On the side of the hospitals, it is necessary to proactively develop a plan to manage and treat waste for each unit within its capacity, only then will the environment in medical facilities hopefully be improved.

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