Healthcare facilities in the Abu Dhabi emirate produce around 12 tonnes of medical waste per day, majority of which are from the government-run hospitals and clinics, Khaleej Times has learnt.

According to Yasin Ramahi, senior Health, Safety and Environment specialist at the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA), the combined medical waste output of SEHA’s 12 hospitals and 62 clinics reaches nine tonnes per day, with its largest hospital — the Shaikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC) — producing 1.9 tonnes per day on 
average. 

 The private facilities accounted for 2.75 tonnes per day, said Majed Al Mansouri, managing director of the Abu Dhabi Centre of Waste Management.

 There are 39 hospitals and 572 centres and clinics currently registered with the Health Authority-Abu Dhabi (HAAD).

There is much evidence of effective and well-managed clinical waste disposal in most of the Emirates, with an effective infrastructure and appropriate regulation in place, and a good balance of public involvement and private investment.

Unfortunately, that is not the case throughout the Emirates, where in some areas little or nothing exists for the management of clinical wastes, except perhaps a big hole in the sand. And as population growth incraeses teh demand for healthcare, incraesed volumes of clinical wastes are becoming difficult to manage even where facilities exist.