‘Hazardous’ medical waste sterilisation unit to be repaired

A UNIT for sterilising medical waste is to be repaired, more than three years after Cyprus Today revealed it was out of order, leaving potentially hazardous clinical debris disposed of by hospitals and clinics to be dumped untreated at the Güngör tip.

Former health minister Faiz Sucuoğlu said they had been promised by officials of the European Union, which also funded the state-of-theart Güngör landfill site, that a sterilisation unit it paid for in the grounds of Lefkoşa State Hospital, but which broke down in 2014, would be back in action within six weeks.

He said the pledge had been made after TRNC authorities met EU officials and told them they would seek Ankara’s help if the problem was not resolved.

Cyprus Today revealed in January 2015 that the waste being dumped at Güngör included clinical waste — brought to Lefkoşa for sterilisation from the country’s other state hospitals and 22 health centres, as well as dentists, private clinics and hospitals.

Chief nurse Fatma Savaşkan confirmed at the time that the medical detritus had been dumped in a separate hole at the landfill site over a period of months because the EUfunded disposal unit was out of service.

Ms Savaşkan confirmed last week that the unit was to be fixed within weeks.

Commenting on the three-year practice of the medical waste being removed by dustmen, squashed into bin wagons with compressors and then dumped at the landfill site with other rubbish, neurology expert Dr İlker İpekdal said it posed a “huge health risk”.