المملكة: Safe and sound, 80% of medical waste with “infectious” health facilities

The director of the medical waste program at the Ministry of Health, Rayan Al -Khwaiter, defined health care waste, as all types of waste issued by any health facility of all kinds, plastic, paper, and food.
Two classifications include the first classification “non -dangerous medical waste”, and it does not constitute a danger to the environment and the human being, for example: gloves, unused or used masks.
The second classification is “dangerous medical waste”, as it varies between very infectious, infectious, chemical, sharp, radiant, genes and cells that are the most dangerous species.

Dangerous medical waste

Al -Khwater pointed out that most of the dangerous medical waste comes from the type of infectious, as it exceeds 80% of the types of dangerous medical waste in health facilities.
He explained that the primary goal of the classification of waste into several types is to determine the level of its risk, reduce the risk of pollution in it, determine the course of optimal dealing with it, and the way to get rid of it safely.
The methods of safe disposal differ from dangerous medical waste according to each type, as the type of “toxic to genes and cells” and “chemical”, are disposed of according to the regulations and systems, by burning them at a temperature of 1200 degrees Celsius.

Risk

Al -Khwater stressed that in the past three years, the percentage of dangerous medical waste decreased significantly, as the rate of decrease in some hospitals reaches 70%, and this comes as a result of the precise classification of this waste, and dealing with it according to its seriousness.
It touched on the challenges they face, including the absence of treatment for medical waste in some regions of the Kingdom, which makes the health facility have to transfer waste to a treatment plant in another region and cut long distances in it, as this is a danger to the environment and the human being.

Ministry of Health

Al -Khwaiter said that the new regulations allowed the entry of modern technologies and health treatment of waste within health facilities, which are waste treatment devices and transfer them from dangerous to non -dangerous waste, instead of transferring them to long -distance treatment plants; This reduces the risk of transportation and environmental pollution.
He pointed out that the medical waste program was established in the Ministry of Health, to deal with dangerous medical waste in governmental and semi -governmental and private health facilities, and to get rid of them safely and sound, and it falls under the General Administration of Environmental Health in the Agency for Preventive Health at the Ministry of Health.