Healthcare Waste Report - Environment Health

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Realizing the threats posed by healthcare waste, the
Thematic Working Group on Solid and Hazardous
Waste under the Regional Forum on Environment
and Health considered it as an important area for
action.
The 3RKH and TWGSHW share common interests
on healthcare waste as their priority areas. In view
of this commonality, 3RKH was tasked with the
assignment of preparing a Healthcare Waste status
report. The task was initiated by 3RKH with the
support from ADB and TWGSHW in turn
supported by the Ministry of the Environment,
Japan (MOEJ). This report titled “Healthcare Waste
in Asia: Intuitions & Insights” is the outcome of the
study.
Understanding the liability of the study and its
possible reflections on future decisions, information
sources were selected with due care. Ministries and
organizations related to healthcare waste were
considered the key sources of information. The
principal source of information was the reports and
presentations of TWGSHW country representatives’
made during the 1st meeting of the Thematic
Working Group on Solid and Hazardous Waste, 28-
29 February 2008, Singapore.
The core of the report consists of three Chapters,
Country Reports, Global Experiences and Lessons to
Learn and finally the Recommendations.
The country reports present an overview of the
country following which a profile of the healthcare
facilities in the country is provided. The succeeding
section of the country report discusses the healthcare
waste scenario and management in the facilities. The
subsequent section presents current institutional set
up and its contribution to the HCWM and the
prevailing policies, regulations and legislations. The
next section includes multilateral and international
organization involvement in HCWM.
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