Compliance with healthcare waste management regulations by small private producers in Portugal

摘要

In Portugal, as in other European Union countries, the management of healthcare waste is regulated by law. Although legal provisions covering the safe management of healthcare waste date back to the 1990s, little is known about the compliance of Portuguese healthcare units with the relevant regulations. This lack of information is particularly intensified for small private healthcare waste producers, a situation that is not unique to Portugal as indicated by the paucity of published research on the compliance behavior of these types of healthcare units in other EU countries. In Portugal, these units are comprised of large numbers of private dental and physicians' offices, outpatient clinics, clinical laboratories, etc., dispersed throughout the country. Recent estimates indicate that they account for at least 20% of the healthcare waste produced at the national level (Almeida, 2010), a figure that may increase in the future as aging populations and the resulting growth in the number of patients living with chronic diseases increases the demand for these types of healthcare units.