Hospital's hazardous medical waste incinerator is seriously degraded

According to the reporter of TN&MT Newspaper at the hazardous solid waste treatment area of Dien Bien Provincial General Hospital, the hazardous solid waste incineration area of the Hospital is located below the slope of Ta-Luy Duong, about 200m from the departments where patients are being treated.

Patient Lo Thi Phuong, treated at the Department of Neuropsychiatry, said: Sometimes when the furnace is burning, we can smell the burning smell, the smell of smoke... coming from the location of the furnace. Especially when the weather is calm.

a1(2).jpg — The solid waste incinerator of Dien Bien Provincial General Hospital is now seriously degraded.

Doctor Ta Van Hien, Head of the Infection Control Department, Dien Bien General Hospital, also admitted that the hospital's incinerator is currently degraded. If the hospital does not replace the incinerator with another one, the current situation will continue, and the smoke from the incinerator will affect the health of doctors and patients in some neighboring departments such as the Department of Tropical Diseases and the Department of Neuropsychiatry of the hospital.

Discussing this issue with us, Mr. Tran Duc Nghia, Deputy Director of Dien Bien Provincial General Hospital, said: Currently, the hospital's hazardous waste incinerator is seriously degraded. Although the incinerator has only been operating for 5 years using Japanese technology. However, during the 2 years of the Covid-19 pandemic, the hospital's hazardous solid waste incinerator system has been operating around the clock. Normally, the incinerator's burning capacity only fluctuates between 50 - 80kg/batch/hour. But during the Covid-19 outbreak, the incinerator had to burn from 150 - 190kg/batch.

At that time, the Hospital was assigned the task of collecting, transporting, and treating all hazardous medical solid waste generated in the isolation and treatment areas for Covid-19 patients in Dien Bien Phu City, tons of hazardous medical waste every day. Therefore, the incinerator had to operate continuously for 2 consecutive years, exceeding capacity every day. Up to now, the incinerator has broken the secondary combustion chamber. The furnace body and the inside of the incinerator have rusted and peeled a lot. Recently, the water tank to cool the furnace body has leaked into the combustion chamber, making the combustion process difficult, causing smoke. Meanwhile, the height of the exhaust pipe at the incinerator is low. Therefore, when burning waste, it causes smoke and affects the surrounding areas.

a2(3).jpg — The furnace body and inside of the furnace are rusty and peeling.

Regarding the solution to the above situation, Mr. Nghia said: We have invited units to come and repair it but cannot do anything because the furnace is severely damaged. In the short term, we propose and hope that the People's Committee of Dien Bien province will allow investment in purchasing new equipment from the Hospital's Career Development Fund to replace the old furnace. Ensure the health of patients and doctors at the 2 Departments of Thermology and Neurology near the furnace. In the long term, the Hospital hopes that the province will soon build a centralized hazardous solid waste treatment center, including hazardous medical solid waste from the Hospital and neighboring Medical Centers on the premises of the Pung Min Waste Plant, Pom Lot Commune, Dien Bien District. At the same time, hire a collection and treatment unit so that doctors can focus on treating patients, without being affected by the collection, transportation, and treatment of hazardous medical waste...

a3(2).jpg — The hospital's hazardous solid waste incineration area is located below the slope of the slope, about 200m from the departments where patients are being treated.

Currently, Dien Bien Provincial General Hospital has a total of 32 departments, rooms, and affiliated centers. A total of 20 clinical and paraclinical departments and 5 and 7 functional rooms. There are 791 hospital beds. The unit is assigned to handle hazardous medical solid waste for 45 units according to the cluster model. The total amount of treatment is 39,157.5 kg. Of which, 33,962.5 kg of hazardous medical solid waste must be burned every day, nearly 5 times the capacity of the incinerator. Meanwhile, the hazardous medical waste incinerator of this unit is seriously degraded.

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