High medical waste collection fee defended

A senior official at Wekaya has defended the high waste collection fee in Sharjah, stating that it is the only manageable way to ensure that medical facilities are not thrown out with home waste. Khalifa Al Shaibani, general manager of medical waste collection company Wekaya, explained that the collection fee is lower in neighbouring emirates because medical facilities are only required to sign a contract with a waste collection firm, which charges them per kilogram. "Before we introduced Wekaya, the medical facilities were charged per kilogram of waste and only had to pay between Dh1,200 and Dh4,000 per year. But the problem with that scheme was that the medical facilities wanted to save money, and they ended up throwing some of the medical waste with the normal waste," said Al Shaibani. Deadline Article continues below He pointed out that if the waste collection fee was fixed on a monthly basis instead of basing it on every kilogram, it would ensure that medical facilities are complying with the safety health rules and regulations. "If medical waste is mixed with normal waste, it will cause a leakage and spread diseases. So we had to deal with this issue in the proper way and make the payment of collecting waste like that of a utility bill," he noted. Today is the deadline for medical facilities to register with Wekaya. If companies fail to do so, they will be issued with a warning and a Dh5,000 fine, and if they still fail to register after two weeks, the premises will be closed down for 90 days. As part of the criteria in registering with Wekaya, medical facilities will be required to pay Dh440 per doctor in addition to Dh1,000 for training a medical waste officer and a registration fee of Dh200. The annual fee paid to Wekaya will range between Dh10,000 and Dh60,000, taking into consideration the number of doctors and the size of the facility. Although the medical waste collection service will be officially launched on July 1, Al Shaibani added that it has already started carrying out its service with several registered medical facilities. However, doctors have expressed their frustration about the fee, saying that each clinic should be taken into account. No choice "The new waste collection fee will be a strain on all clinics. It is good that the authorities have set up this new body to collect waste because none existed before in Sharjah, but hospitals that perform surgeries will have more waste than other clinics," said Dr Meera Gopi Kurian, managing director of Sunny Medical Group. "We have to pay the fees, regardless of whether we are happy with the fee structure or not, but the authorities should take into consideration the quality and quantity of the medical waste, because medical clinics will have cotton swabs and tissues, while hospitals with surgeries will have body parts," she said. Dr Jayamohanan T.P., an ophthalmologist, pointed out that the waste collection fees are high when compared to other emirates, and that the costs can reach up to Dh10,000 per year.