Several plastic bags generated by the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center remain uncollected after 11 dump trucks took most of the trash out near their area. (CDN PHOTO/ LITO TECSON)
ABOUT 11 dump trucks were used to collect the garbage generated by the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) which also paid a P500 fine for not segregating their wastes.
Ma. Victoria Villarojo, VSMMC´s housekeeping chief, said a diaper was discovered mixed in the common garbage collected by the Department of Public Services (DPS). She said it was an isolated case.
“They (Cebu City Environmental Sanitation and Enforcement Team) have just generalized it that it was not being segregated. Some are afraid when it comes to hospital waste,” she told the reporters.
Villarojo said they generally segregate their wastes. Biomedical wastes are segregated into four colors.
Black is for dry waste, green is for wet waste, red for sharp objects like used needles and broken syringes and yellow for infectious waste. The diaper belongs to the infectious waste.
Last week, Cebu City Administrator Lucelle Mercado went to the hospital and discussed the garbage problem with officials there.
Villarojo said Mercado told them they will continue collecting the hospital’s garbage on a daily basis.
The DPS is in charge in collecting common garbage while the Pollution Abatement System Specialist Inc (PASSI), the hospital´s contractor, disposes the medical and pathological wastes.
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