Assessment of medical waste generation rate in Viet Nam

This study was conducted to estimate medical wastes generation rates in Viet Nam. Within 3 years (from 2017 to 2019), total medical wastes generated daily of 1,737 health-care facilities at different levels from 19/63 provinces in Viet Nam were surveyed. The calculation was based on the median daily generation (in kg) of 6 medical waste groups and total actual patient beds in 9 health-care facility categories. Six medical waste groups were sharps, non-sharps, high-risk infectious, pathological, non-infectious hazardous, recyclable and non-recyclable wastes. Surveyed health-care facilities were categorized in central general hospitals, central specialist hospitals, provincial general hospitals, provincial specialist hospitals, district health centers, regional clinics, commune health stations, private hospitals and private clinics. The results showed that waste generation rates varied from 0.0009 to 1.619 kg/bed/day depends on type of medical wastes or health-care facilities. For no-patient-bed facilities (commune health stations and private clinics), medical waste generation rates of these two were calculated in kg/day and varied from 0.1 to 1.75 kg/day.