Just over one kilogram of health care waste is generated per person in hospitals daily; how is the country managing to cope with this? This is just one of the many challenges that the health care industry is being faced with. Yesterday – 6 March 2013 –at the launch of the Health Care Waste Forum Summit, all industry stakeholders were called to show their support and to work together to find solutions for ethical health care waste management.

Industry experts in the health care waste sector are all encouraged to support the Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa’s (IWMSA) Health Care Waste Forum (HCWF) biennial Summit, taking place at Emperors Palace in Johannesburg from 15 to 17 May 2013.

Stan Jewaskiewitz, past president of the IWMSA, says: “In order for the HCWF to be successful, we need government’s support; many of the Acts and standards on health care waste date back to as late as 2007 and are still in draft format and have not been promulgated yet.”

Challenging context

“Unfortunately many of the challenges that the industry has been faced with six years ago have not gone away.” Jewaskiewitz added. “Training, compliance, transport and tender irregularities are the four key issues that need to be addressed.

“At the IWMSA we are looking at ways to accredit our members, making sure that quality assurance is met with the necessary ethical and legal adherence. It is still at the beginning stages of the process, but we believe that this will have a major positive impact on the industry’s standards. However, we will not be able to do this successfully without buy-in from government,” indicated Jewaskiewitz.

Dr Suzan Oelofse, vice president of the IWMSA, added: “We are looking forward to industry players coming up with innovative ways to find resolutions for the issues at hand at the Summit.”

Summit summary

“At this year’s summit, the anticipated 175 delegates can look forward to having access to the latest trends, health care innovations and developments, newest technologies available on the market – not only from a South African perspective, but also from industry experts from India, United States and Central Europe,” says Oelofse.

“Providing the delegates with a platform for networking and sharing knowledge through interactive panel discussions, and debating key industry topics will be a key focus for this year’s summit.

“On the last day of the summit an interactive workshop, held in conjunction with the Department of Environmental Affairs, has been scheduled to discuss draft regulations on the non-thermal technologies. IWMSA stakeholders are invited to participate in the discussion; it is important that we as the IWMSA give our members the opportunity to engage directly with government and provide on the ground feedback and inputs on legislation formulation. This shows our commitment to working with government and also helping our members’ voices be heard,” concluded Oelofse.

The Health Care Waste Forum (HCWF) is a branch of the IWMSA, providing the health care waste management industry with a voice for the industry.

For more information about The Health Care Waste Summit & Expo, visit www.iwmsa.co.za.