The Medical Environment Management Agency has announced that 478 out of 543 hospitals across Vietnam have well-operating waste treatment systems, accounting for 88 percent of the total.

According to the agency’s statistics, the waste water treatment systems of 54 hospitals are not working or worked poorly, while 11 hospitals have no waste treatment facilities or are building new ones.

Hazardous medical waste accounts for about 23 percent of the total medical waste, 99 percent of which have been treated properly.  

At present, 192 hospitals own incinerators to burn solid waste. However, most of them are out of date and posing a threat to the environment.

The agency said that over the past time, it has organised many activities on medical waste management, including training courses on waste management for officials of local health departments, health clinics, local Departments of Natural Resources and Environment, environment police, and operators of hospital waste treatment systems.

The agency also held a competition on waste treatment and environmental protection, and organised inter-sectoral inspection delegations to check environmental protection and waste treatment work at hospitals and local health departments.

In the time ahead, the agency will continue working to perfect legal documents on medical environment management and pilot contracting out medical waste water treatment services.-VNA