Currently more than 1,300 kilograms of infectious waste is delivered to the waste disposal facility at Saphan Hin each day, Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwansupana told a meeting held at the Royal Phuket City Hotel last Thursday (Oct 3) to discuss the issue.
“This is likely to increase due to the increasing number of private hospitals and clinics on the island as a result of the policy to develop Phuket as a medical tourism hub,” Mayor Simjai said.
Just three years, in 2016, 460 tons of medical waste was delivered to the disposal facility a year.
“The Phuket Government has assigned Phuket City Municipality the responsibility of eliminating infectious waste from hospitals,” she said.
“Therefore, we need to come up with an appropriate management system for infectious waste to prevent problems from occurring, Mayor Somjai added.
“We need a system to be designed that is able to dispose of such waste and not affect the environment in accordance with the law,” Ms Somjai noted.
“The study is also to take into account the increasing amount of infectious waste in the future, and to come up with a solution that is worth the investment cost and is beneficial for Phuket,” she said.