LGUs told to monitor erring hospitals

Alarmed by the failure of Cebu hospitals to comply with the laws on proper environmental waste disposal, former Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) secretary Elisea Gozun urged local government units (LGUs) to put on hold the renewal of business permits of erring hospitals.

Gozun said that there is an urgent need for multi-sectoral groups, especially the LGUs, to closely monitor hospitals that are not environmentally-responsible. This as non-renewal of business permits alone does not necessarily stop the operation of the hospital.

"I understand Cebu already has a hospital waste treatment facility here, led by a private-sector, so what is keeping these hospitals from not complying,?" Gozun said.

DoH-7 Sanitary Engineer Vivencio Ediza Jr. 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.

Realizing the DOH-7's limitation in intensifying its monitoring capacity due to lack of manpower, Gozun said this problem, which could also affect Cebu's positioning as Medical Tourism site, can be easily solved if the LGUs will cooperate and take actions on this serious matter.

Licensing is a critical mechanism that could push hospitals to set up good solid waste system, "LGUs must come in, and not just focusing on hospitals, but also funeral parlors."

"We have law and Implementing Rules and Regulations, we have to implement it. Collaboration between various sectors, like DENR, DOH and LGUs would a very important role," said Gozun who is also the chairperson for Solid Waste Management Association, and Earth Day Network.

DENR-7 regional director Alan Aranguez said that although the laws and even the facilities are in place, there must be proper coordination so protocol—from waste throwing, packaging and transport and disposal—are synchronize.

The non-compliance of hospitals and other health care industry providers on environmental laws is seen as one of the factors that discourage medical tourism market in choosing destinations around the world.