VietNamNet Bridge – Minister of Health Nguyen Quoc Trieu has ordered all hospitals to set up waste treatment systems to ensure their discharges meet environmental regulations.

Hospitals that do not have a furnace to burn solid waste should use bacterial, microwave, and other environmentally-friendly technologies

Trieu said it was compulsory for medical facilities to build treatment systems.

Hospitals must also periodically check and maintain records of sewage treatment.

Hospitals that do not have a furnace to burn solid waste should use bacterial, microwave, and other environmentally-friendly technologies, he added.

According to a report by the Ministry of Health, there are around 200 furnaces handling 73 per cent of the solid waste generated by hospitals. The remaining 27 per cent is either buried or burnt outdoors.

The ministry also asked provincial health departments to draft plans to treat dangerous medical waste at hospitals to ensure that by 2010 all the solid waste generated in the country is treated.

(Source: Viet Nam News)