Recently, ten departments including the National Health Commission ("NHC") have jointly issued the Work Plan for Comprehensive Regulation of Medical Waste of Medical Institutions (the "Plan").
The Plan touches upon tasks in eight aspects, including: 1. urging medical institutions to internally classify and manage their medical waste; 2. effectively disposing of medical waste; 3. effectively managing household refuse; 4. ensuring recycling of infusion bottles (bags); 5. initiating a special rectification program on waste generated by medical institutions; 6. ensuring the implementation of various measures; 7. publicizing and guiding the regulation; and 8. making summaries and evaluations. The Plan expressly states that medical waste, household refuse, infusion bottles (bags), etc. generated by medical institutions should be disposed of by category, and medical institutions will be required to effectively classify, collect, store, hand over, and transport waste by category. The Plan also proposes a special rectification program on waste across the entire country, with major attention placed on rectifying unstandardized classification, storage, registration and handover of waste, false reports or concealment of the amount of medical waste generated, illegal speculative reselling of medical waste, among other irregularities of medical institutions.