Wastes stuck in hospitals

Absence of service provider for 7 months

CEBU, Philippines — Several medical facilities in Cebu City were not able to dispose of their medical and infectious wastes for seven months that their storage facilities have almost reached their maximum capacity, something that authorities say posed health risks and damage to the environment.

This is because the company that was supposed to transport the wastes out of the facilities was not given permits to operate within this time period.

PASSI, the service provider of over 50 medical facilities in Cebu City, has just secured a Treatment, Storage, and Disposal (TSD) permit and permit to transport hospital wastes after these permits expired in June 2018.

Councilor Joel Garganera is now calling for an easier, faster process in getting the permits.

He said the Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources should come up with a mechanism that would prevent the incident in 2015 when more than 30,000 kilos of infectious waste from health care facilities across Metro Cebu were uncollected reportedly because of the tedious processes in securing permits from EMB.

At that time, PASSI was the lone accredited Treatment, Storage, and Disposal (TSD) facility in Cebu. The company has been operating for 15 years.

“Again, we encounter this problem once more. When I inquired from several healthcare facilities in the city and found out that infectious hospital wastes remain uncollected for more than four months now. This recurring problem on the treatment, storage, and disposal of hospital wastes poses a probable health risk and irreversible damage not only to the environment but to the health and safety of our constituents,” Garganera said.

While hospital waste generators have the responsibility of their wastes, Garganera said EMB should not make it hard for firms like PASSI to process their permits especially that there is no other alternative in collecting these hazardous wastes.

Earlier this month, several hospital and infectious wastes were seen floating on the Mactan Channel and yellow plastics containing hazardous wastes were seen at the dumpsite in Mandaue City.

Sentiments

Yesterday morning, the Cebu City Council called for an executive session to discuss the extent of the problem on hospital waste management here.

The session was attended by representatives of over 15 medical facilities, service providers, and officials of the Environment Management Bureau of Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Dean Decal, director of Corporate Services of Chong Hua Hospital, said the hospital's waste storage is already full because they produce 8,000 kilograms of waste a month.

“We produce 8,000 kilos of waste a month. It’s really full (septic vaults). But we heard that PASSI has been granted permit. Dapat makuhaan na ang waste this week or next week…near crisis already,” he told the Council.

Unlike other small medical facilities, Chong Hua Hospital has the ability to treat its own wastes with the use of equipment like the autoclave, among others.

However, Decal said the hospital still needs the services of PASSI to ensure that the hospital wastes will not pose harmful effects to its patients and the environment.

The Cebu Puericulture Center and Maternity House (CPCMHI) and Cebu City Medical Center share the sentiment. These facilities stored and treated their own wastes while waiting for PASSI to resume collection and disposal.

Susan Yu, Administrator of CPCMHI, said the management’s biggest challenge was the transport and treatment of pathological wastes, which emits a foul odor when not treated and disinfected properly.

Dr. Anton Reposar II, acting administrator of CCMC, said the hospital does not have problem in storing and treating hospital wastes for now. However, its septic vault is almost full and needs to be emptied by PASSI for disposal.

For six months, he said, CCMC stored infectious wastes in its 35 cubic meter waste facility area, as the hospital produces about 1,000 kilograms of wastes a month.

Situation

Irene Doños, one of the pollution control officers of PASSI, said the firm has tried to comply with all the needed requirements and requisites to renew their TSD and permit to transport the hospital wastes before its permit expired in June 2018.

But EMB-7 Director William Cuñado said PASSI was reportedly not compliant with the EMB’s requirements.

“We found out that PASSI was not compliant. If they are compliant, there’s no problem. That’s our job, to monitor them,” he said.

Cuñado said Metro Cebu generates at least 1,001 tons of hospital wastes per year.

He said hospitals have the mandate to treat their own wastes and EMB has the mandate to ensure that accredited service providers should comply with requirements like a disposal site, among others.

Doños has admitted that the wastes PASSI has collected – since they started operating in 2003 and went full blast in 2015 – have not been disposed of at a final disposal site.

Cuñado assured members of the City Council that there will be no crisis on hospital wastes piling up in facilities because there are several service providers that can cater to these needs.

These are PASSI, DCECI, Aquilini Mactan Renewable Energy, Inc. (AMREI), and Medclean Management Solutions, Inc. (MMSI).

Vincent Bosotros, representative of DCECI, another service provider, said his firm has the technology to process all hospital wastes.

Bosotros said 50 percent of the processed waste will turn into char, which is a soil conditioner, and the other 50 percent will become shredded plastic.

He said the company takes pride in this technology even if they only cater to three hospitals in Cebu, for now, because of its limited facility.

Even with the present options, Cuñado encouraged hospitals to acquire equipment like an autoclave so that they will not depend on service providers. Isabella G. Obor (FREEMAN)