Abstract
Nowadays, together with the economic development, public health activities have gained substantial attention with increasing number of hospitals during the past decades. A multi-method approach involving site visits, questionnaires, and interviews, in combination with secondary data revealed that the healthcare waste (HCW) generation, varied with different specialties (general or pediatric/obstetric hospitals) and different level of hospitals (central, provincial, district levels). The HCW generation from different kinds of surveyed hospitals varied from 0.8 to 1.0 kg/bed/day for domestic waste, 0.15 to 0.25 kg/bed/day for infectious and hazardous waste, and less than 0.1 kg/bed/day for recycled waste. Only 94.3% of central hospitals, 92% of provincial hospitals, and 82% of district hospitals complied with national regulation in hazardous medical waste treatment. For healthcare wastewater treatment, the actual operating rates were 91%, 73%, and 50% for central, provincial, and district hospitals, respectively. The cost for HCW management accounted for only 10–15% of the total budget allocated for the medical facilities. Most of the provincial hospitals spent about $0.2–$0.4/bed/year for HCW management. This is the root cause of ineffective HCW management.
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Abbreviations
- ANOVA:
-
analysis of variance
- BOD:
-
biological oxygen demand
- COD:
-
chemical oxygen demand
- DONRE:
-
Department of Natural Resources and Environment
- DOH:
-
Department of Health
- DOST:
-
Department of Science and Technology
- H2S:
-
hydrogen sulfur
- HCWM:
-
healthcare waste management
- HW:
-
hazardous waste
- MOF:
-
Ministry of Finance
- MOH:
-
Ministry of Health
- MONRE:
-
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
- NH4 :
-
ammonium
- NO3 :
-
nitrate
- PC:
-
People’s Committee
- PO4 3− :
-
phosphate
- SWM:
-
solid waste management
- TSS:
-
total suspended solids
- VIHEMA:
-
Vietnam Health Environment Management Agency
- WB:
-
World Bank
- WHO:
-
World Health Organization
- WW:
-
wastewater
- WWT:
-
wastewater treatment
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express deep acknowledgement for the support of the “Vietnam–Northern East and Red River Delta Regions Health System Support Project 2014–2019” (ODA loan from World Bank) for the data collection and site visits.
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Dang, H.T.T., Dang, H.V. & Tran, T.Q. Insights of healthcare waste management practices in Vietnam. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 12131–12143 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10832-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10832-x