Gov’t agencies back Cebu’s bid to become medical tourism hub

Pressured by the active stance of Cebu to become a preferred site for medical tourism, concerned government agencies that monitor waste disposal compliance of hospitals here have decided to join hands to help push Cebu’s maximum potential in this multi-million dollar industry.

Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR-7) regional director Allan Aranguez said that the focus of his office this year, is to closely monitor the proper waste disposal systems of the hospitals in Cebu, to prove to the international market that government and private sectors are working together to make Cebu as a major destination for the worldwide medical tourism market.

For his part, DoH-7 Sanitary Engineer Vivencio Ediza Jr. said that while the medical tourism industry is a big market opportunity for Cebu’s health care community, there is an urgent call for hospitals, specifically district hospitals, to adhere to the proper management of infectious and hazardous wastes.

In a recent press conference, Ediza mentioned that DOH-7 observed that several district hospitals in the province are not doing the correct practice of segregating these health care wastes.

"In our monitoring of district hospitals, they cannot sustain buying color-coded plastic receptacles -- black, yellow, green, orange, and red -- to segregate the wastes. The infectious waste contents are sometimes mixed in the black trash bag," he said, adding that due to financial limitations, some district hospitals are utilizing the black trash bag only.

Following this decision of the two government agencies, Aranguez initiated a move to meet again with the DOH-7, to iron out issues concerning their monitoring jurisdictions, following the recently signed Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), between the two agencies in their head offices in Manila.

Aranguez said there are still many gray areas in the various laws covering solid-waste management and toxic-waste disposal.

“We must admit there are still a lot of gray areas because we [DENR] and the Department of Health are going our separate ways. We need to coordinate more,” Aranguez said.

Although the laws and even the facilities are in place, Aranguez said there must be proper coordination so protocol—from waste throwing, packaging and transport and disposal—are synchronized.

In an earlier interview with Cebu Health and Wellness Council (CHWC) president Oscar Tuason, he said that major hospitals in Cebu such as Cebu Doctors Hospital, Chong Hua Hospital, and Perpetual Soccour Hospital are ready to accommodate international clients seeking for globally-at-par healthcare services. – Ehda M. Dagooc