By Rodrigo S. Victoria
Tacloban City -- In line with the Environmental Awareness Week celebration, the office of the Environment and Management Bureau (EMB) here in region 8 and the Philippine Society of Anesthesiologist Incorporated - Eastern Visayas Chapter (PSAI-EV) jointly conducted November 4 a healthcare waste management forum at the function hall of the Divine Word University (DWU) Hospital.
The rationale of the forum was to give the healthcare providers coming from DWU Hospital relevant information regarding environmental rules, regulations and laws and for them to be able to gain awareness on environmental best practices most helpful to themselves, the workplace and the community in general.
The healthcare providers from DWU Hospital who attended the forum were composed of some directors in several hospital departments and medical practitioners and staffs.
Dr. Flor Agapay, President of PSAI-EV said in her opening message that the healthcare waste management forum is one of the activities supposed to be conducted by their group in line with the Anesthesiology Week Celebration on October 17-23, 2010 but was not materialized due to conflict of schedule with the resource person.
The PSAI president who is also a resident anesthesiologist in DWU hospital informed that their group's celebration has also something to do with the environment as the theme was centered on 4P's i.e patient, profession, place and planet.
She emphasized to the participants to make use of the knowledge they will gain from the forum for their daily activity and for them to be able to contribute in the maintenance and sustainability of a wholesome environment not only in their respective workplace but in the community where they lived.
Maribel B. Munsayac, chief of administrative and finance division and concurrent chief of the environmental education and information section of EMB 8 and the resource person of the healthcare waste management forum, presented the different environmental rules, regulation and laws that a healthcare service provider like DWU Hospital and other healthcare providers in the region should follow and observed.
Munsayac who is also the regional solid waste management coordinator in the region, discussed the Joint DENR-DOH Administrative Order (JAO) 2005-02 that outlines rules and regulations on proper management and disposal of healthcare wastes.
She also discussed the salient features of Republic Act 9003 otherwise known as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 that provides Local Government Units (LGUs) guideposts in the implementation of solid waste management program of respective LGUs in the country.
For his part, Dr. Habito Salinas, Director of the Medical Education department of DWU Hospital who also served as the moderator during the open forum, stressed that now is the right time to act to save planet Earth from imminent environmental disaster.
Salinas, said that saving planet Earth from environmental disaster starts from oneself and everybody should act now before its too late.
"We should not ask what the government can do for us but we rather ask ourselves what we can contribute to the government in this crusade of saving our environment", Salinas further said.