27th June 2002
 

The MMA wishes to notify all private practitioners that the Director-General of the Department of Environment (DOE) of the Ministry of Science, Technology & Environment, Puan Hajjah Rosnani Ibrahim, had sent us a letter informing that the deadline for clinics nationwide to implement clinical waste disposal is on 1st July 2002.

Based on all the problems faced by doctors in the various states across the country with regards to disposing clinical wastes, the MMA will be requesting for a meeting to solve all these problems. Last month, the association had submitted all its problems to the DOE and the Director-General of DOE had also gone through it. Some of the problems faced by the state branches are as follows.
 
 

Infrequent collection of wastes - all the contractors are willing to collect wastes only once a month as a minimum. It would be chaotic if the local authority insisted, similarly, that it would collect rubbish only once a month and imposed surcharges for more frequent collection. For the amount charged, fortnightly, if not a weekly collection would be more appropriate.
 

Storage of clinical wastes - if collection of wastes is to be done only on a monthly basis, the soiled material such as gauze, swabs and bandages would have to be kept in a refrigerator as required by the law. It would be ridiculous and expensive to have a dedicated refrigerator just for this purpose.
 

Near monopoly, charges too high - the basic charges of RM80 for a minimum service of once a month are excessive and were arrived at arbitrarily. Clinics have hardly any choice in the selection of their waste disposal contractor and therefore are being held to ransom.
 

Poor services - one clinic reported that it was left in the lurch with a load of rubbish when a sub-contractor assigned by a particular clinical waste management company to collect the waste defaulted on collection and absconded. Clearly, we are in for erratic waste collection in the current situation.
 

Clinics lumped together with factories - as far as the Law is concerned, clinics have been given the same consideration as factories producing far more hazardous waste in much larger quantities but with the same punitive fines being applicable. While a fine of RM2,000 for every instance of infringement of the Law may be "chicken feed" to multinational giants, most clinics will be done for, if the Ministry went after them with full vehemence.
 

Law may be laudable infrastructure not in place - while the Environmental Quality Regulations are necessary to ensure a safer environment, the infrastructure to implement it fairly and efficiently is not in place. Only three companies are allowed to provide clinical waste disposal services for the whole of Peninsular Malaysia and these companies are dictating unrealistic and unfair terms to the users of their services. If the Ministry is truly interested in ensuring a better environment and not merely collecting fines, these issues need to be addressed. Some members pointed out that while loads and loads of household and commercial rubbish can be seen left uncollected in every town in Malaysia, the Ministry seems to be bent upon victimizing clinics for the small amount of waste generated by them.

However, the Director-General of DOE informed the MMA that the three authorized companies providing services to dispose clinical wastes - Radicare (M) Sdn Bhd, Faber Medi-Serve Sdn Bhd and Pantai Medivest Sdn Bhd, will be able to handle and manage the disposal of clinical wastes in the country.
The MMA will continue pursuing the matter with DOE as we foresee more problems may arise after the implementation.