Experts urge sanctions for unlawful hospitals

Experts urge sanctions for unlawful hospitals

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The city administration is advised to take tough measures against
39 hospitals in the city that do not treat their medical waste
properly, because such waste could endanger people's health and
damage the environment.

Besides the 39 hospitals, hundreds of community health centers
in the capital also do not treat their medical waste properly,
environmental engineer Nusa Idaman Said from the Agency for the
Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) said on Sunday.

"Many of the hospitals and health centers dump infectious
waste together with common domestic waste at the Bantar Gebang
dump in Bekasi," Nusa told The Jakarta Post.

He called on the City Health Agency that supervised hospitals
and other health centers in the city to undertake preventive
efforts by asking the medical institutions to treat the waste
properly or face administrative sanctions.

If the agency's warnings are ignored, he said that
Environmental Law No. 23/1997 could be enforced to punish
hospitals that did not treat their waste properly.

According to Article 41 of Law No. 23/1997 on the environment,
those found to be damaging the environment can receive a maximum
sentence of 10 years in jail and a maximum fine of Rp 500 million
(US$60,240).

However, if the damage causes the death of others, the maximum
sentence is 15 years in jail and a fine of Rp 750 million.

Previously, the City Environmental Management Body (BPLHD)
revealed that from 99 hospitals in the city, only four hospitals
which had properly managed their medical wastes.

BPLHD recorded that 39 out of 99 hospitals poorly managed
their medical waste, while the remaining 56 hospitals had not
reported their waste management process.

It said that among 39 hospitals were an ophthalmology hospital
in Central Jakarta, two maternity and pediatric hospitals in East
Jakarta and West Jakarta, a hospital belonging to a private
university in North Jakarta and a renowned hospital belonging to
a state-owned enterprise in South Jakarta.

The hospitals reportedly produce radioactive and medical
wastes that could endanger people living within its vicinity.

Radioactive waste from hospitals can cause various diseases,
including cancer, while medical waste can spread infectious
diseases from patients to the public.

Medical waste come in the form of liquid waste from soiled bed
linen produced by hospitals every day and other liquid waste from
patient, treatment and surgery rooms, while solid infectious
waste come in the form of gauze bandages and cotton pads.

If the hospitals have no liquid waste treatment facilities,
they dump the raw waste directly into rivers without any
treatment.

Hospitals usually burn their solid waste at temperatures of
between 800 and 1000 degrees Celsius if they have incinerators.
If they do not have incinerators, the hospitals should bring
their solid waste materials to a treatment facility for hazardous
waste in Bogor, West Java.

Chairman of the Environmental Task Force (ETF) Ahmad "Puput"
Safrudin said improper waste management could not only endanger
people living close by, but also those living in areas far from
the hospitals.

Puput said if infectious and other chemical wastes were dumped
directly into the city's waterways without passing through a
liquid waste treatment facility, infections could spread
throughout the capital.

"We know that rivers in the city are still used by the people
for their daily needs," he told the Post on Sunday. Many city
residents still depend on river water for cooking, bathing and
washing.

He concurred with Nusa that the administration should no
longer tolerate hospitals that have no in-house waste treatment
facilities.