BACOLOD City – The Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) has called on hospitals to ramp up efforts in the handling and disposal of medical waste to ensure health and environmental safety amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The city’s legislative body recently adopted a resolution authored by Councilor Carlos Jose Lopez, chairperson of the SP’s committee on environment and ecology, reminding hospitals and other healthcare facilities to ensure strict adherence to Republic Act No. 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.
Lopez filed the resolution following reports from the IPM Construction and Development Corp. (IPM-CDC) that three hospitals are dumping unsorted discards that may contain hazardous and infectious waste.
These facilities were the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital, Bacolod Adventist Medical Hospital and Riverside Medical Center.
“Addressing the issue on proper waste disposal is of paramount concern not only for environmentalists or other members of the health sector but for the whole society as well, most especially for authorities involved in the regulation of this very vital element,” said Lopez.
IPM-CDC is the city’s official contractor for the management and operation of sanitary landfill facility services.
Nelson Sedillo, head of the Department of Public Services (DPS), said the Solid Waste Management Board conducted a dialogue with the Pollution Control Officers of the said hospitals to give them a final warning.
“Once this act will be done again, we will bring this concern to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources,” Sedillo stressed.
For the health and safety of waste workers, the DPS also requested all hospitals in the city to issue a certification prior to dumping their waste./PN
