Many hospitals have difficulty in handling medical waste.

The city's National Assembly delegation surveyed the medical solid waste storage facility at Can Tho Central General Hospital.

Can Tho General Hospital has basically complied with environmental protection regulations, such as: signing contracts with companies and units that are qualified to collect regular solid waste, hazardous medical waste and regularly inspecting and supervising the classification, collection, transportation and storage of waste at the hospital. Currently, the hospital has a medical wastewater treatment system, with a treatment capacity of 540m3/day, the output wastewater meets type A standards. The hospital's waste treatment machine has stopped operating since March 2020, due to not being able to find repair parts...

Mr. Tran Quoc Luan, Director of Can Tho General Hospital, said: “In 2014, the hospital was equipped with a solid waste treatment machine. At this point, the machine is broken. The hospital invited repair units, but there are no spare parts to replace it. Currently, this solid waste treatment machine only processes 40kg of waste/day, which does not meet the hospital's usage requirements. Therefore, the hospital will submit it to the council for consideration to repair or purchase a new solid waste treatment machine with a larger capacity to meet current and future needs.”

Compliance with environmental protection laws and the organization and management of medical waste at Can Tho Central General Hospital are carried out in accordance with regulations: the hospital has arranged separate areas for storing medical waste for each type of infectious medical waste, hazardous waste, and normal solid waste. For medical solid waste, the hospital has signed contracts with qualified units and companies to transport and treat it according to regulations. In addition, the hospital has also invested in a centralized wastewater treatment system with a treatment capacity of 750m3/day, meeting discharge standards at level B...

Currently, Can Tho Central General Hospital has 46 departments, rooms, centers and organizations, with a total planned number of beds of 1,000. According to the plan, by 2025, the hospital is upgrading the capacity of the wastewater treatment system to handle 100% of the hospital's wastewater, with an operating scale of 1,450 beds and wastewater quality meeting QCVN 40:2025/BTNMT - National technical regulation on industrial wastewater... However, the hospital is facing some difficulties and obstacles in legal procedures.

Mr. Nguyen Van Ngoan, Head of Infection Control Department - Can Tho Central General Hospital said: "The hospital has posted information on the project to increase the capacity of the wastewater treatment system and many units are participating. Some units sent information on the design and construction plan, but the hospital does not have the professional capacity to assess whether it meets or fails to meet the A-class standards. The hospital recommends that the professional departments of the City Department of Agriculture and Environment support the assessment of the project to increase the capacity of the hospital's wastewater treatment system to complete the implementation procedures in accordance with the provisions of law."

Can Tho Children's Hospital is also facing difficulties in obtaining a license to treat medical waste; the number of existing hospital beds has increased beyond the original plan, from 500 beds to 630 beds... Therefore, the hospital is in dire need of support from the city's functional agencies in licensing procedures and funding for the hospital to upgrade its existing waste treatment system to meet the actual operational needs of the hospital...

Currently, hospitals are in dire need of support from the city's functional departments in carrying out legal procedures, environmental licensing, medical waste treatment, etc. This will help hospitals better implement regulations and legal policies on environmental protection.

Article and photos: TT

Source: https://baocantho.com.vn/nhieu-benh-vien-gap-kho-trong-xu-ly-chat-thai-y-te-a185061.html