News block

Travel blog: How Kyrgyzstan’s medical waste management system differs from the one of Latvia?

One hears Latvia, and immediately Asia Mix pops up in mind with their performance in Jurmala, one then remembers a composer Raymond Pauls and a singer Laima Vaikule also born Latvian. But very few know that Latvia is a European country with advanced technologies in the field of medicine, particularly the management and disposal of medical waste.

Having seen the old building of the state Pauls Stradins hospital with a long history and having observed the established system for sorting, transporting and disposal of medical waste, one fully understands how far ahead Latvia has developed its medical waste management system, and it is not surprising that in autoclaving - disinfection of medical waste - Latvia cooperates with such European countries as Germany, France, Finland and others.

The UNDP-GEF project "Protect human health and the environment from unintentional releases of POPs and mercury from the unsound disposal of healthcare waste in Kyrgyzstan" organized a study tour for 11 specialists from the wide system of the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic to study Latvian experience and share with their own expertise in healthcare waste management.

The participants were impressed by the best practices integrated in just 20 years after independence of Latvia. They could see with their own eyes, and touch with their own hands the established system, where healthcare facilities buy autoclaving services from private organizations, which in turn train healthcare workers in sorting and transportation of medical waste, in general resulting in one thing: the ecological consciousness of citizens in protecting the environment on their citizenship level.

I strongly believe that by promoting the best available technologies we will improve the situation with medical waste management and that Kyrgyzstani citizens will also be able to cherish the protected environment in their homeland.