International group calls on Baguio LGU to give priority to medical waste treatment and disposal

September 15, 2008

INTERNATIONAL GROUP CALLS ON BAGUIO LGU TO GIVE PRIORITY TO MEDICAL WASTE TREATMENT AND DISPOSAL

Baguio City - Health Care Without Harm (HCWH)-Southeast Asia, alarmed with reports that treated hospital wastes from Baguio hospitals are not being accepted in the Metro Clark Waste Management Facility in Tarlac, urges the local government to provide a centralized treatment facility “that will ensure safe treatment and disposal of hospitals' infectious wastes”

“At present, solid wastes coming from non-hospital sources are sent to Metro Clark while the hospitals are left to take care of the final disposal of their treated infectious wastes,” said Merci Ferrer, Executive Director of HCWH-SEA.

Hospitals chemically disinfect their infectious waste and are required to set-up a final disposal area within the hospital facility.

“This is not sustainable and not environmentally-friendly. As soon as the final disposal area is full, hospitals would need to set-up a new one and of course the dangers of chemicals used in disinfection leaking to the soil is always there,” said Ferrer.

According to Ferrer, alternative technologies to treat medical wastes are available in the Philippines and “is very economically-viable.”

Autoclaves which uses steam to treat cultures and stocks, sharps, materials contaminated with blood and limited amounts of fluid, isolation and surgery wastes, laboratory wastes (excluding chemical wastes), and soft waste[i] costs around P500,000. “This is way below the P15million a month that the local government of Baguio pays to Metro Clark for its waste disposal.”

According to Ferrer, one treatment facility for the whole of Baguio is enough to cater to its eight hospitals.

She added that the local government of Baguio must take the lead in this citing the Environmental Code of the Philippines which mandates that each province, city or municipality provide measures to facilitate collection, transportation, processing and disposal of waste.

Earlier this year, HCWH-SEA and the City Government and seven Baguio hospitals signed a memorandum of agreement for the hospitals to undergo Health Waste Assessment Project (HWAP).

This came after HCWH-SEA found out that the Waste Assessment and Characterization conducted in Baguio did not include comprehensive data on hospital wastes.

According to Chel Santos, HCWH-SEA Program Officer for the Promotion of Best Practices, HWAP is aimed at closing the gap in the City’s Solid Waste Management Plan, improving the health care waste systems and procedures of the hospitals, and enabling the local government of the City and the regional office of the Department of Health to develop a monitoring system on health care waste management for Baguio and hopefully for the whole Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).

“Now that results of the HWAP will soon be presented, collaboration between the LGU and the hospitals and other stakeholders are very much needed,” said Santos.

Result of the HWAP will be presented to the LGU and hospitals at the fourth quarter of 2008. [Copy of the HWAP Summary will be available at HCWH-SEA office]

Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) is a global coalition of 473 organizations in more than 50 countries working to protect health by reducing pollution in health care sector. For more information, visit www.noharm.org.

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[i] Source: DOH Health Care Waste Management Manual