Singapore, Aug 19, 2010: Frost & Sullivan has revealed that in 2009, the hospital waste management sector of Malaysia made approximately $200 million in revenue by managing, processing and disposing close to 16,000 tonnes in discarded medical devices, equipment and bio-waste. The entire country's medical waste management activities are governed by three concessionaires appointed by the Ministry of Health.

Management of clinical waste in Malaysia is based on the 'cradle-to-grave' concept, where the concessionaires bear most of the responsibilities for every step in the life cycle of medical waste, which includes collection of waste from the health care providers, transport to treatment sites, disposal, and supply of the consumables. The initial stage of waste disposal, which is waste segregation and storage, is performed by health care providers.

Nurul Fatiha, Consulting Analyst, Frost & Sullivan, commented that the industry is expected to hit a double digit growth of 12.8 percent annually and triple its revenue base to $670 million by 2015. This good outlook can be attributed to the general increase in demand for health care services stemming from demographic changes: population growth and aging; changes in disease patterns; growing off-shore medical tourism; and outbreaks of infectious diseases (H1N1, Bird flu etc).

Expansion of medical tourism industry in Malaysia with more than 420,000 medical tourists seeking care in 2009 also means higher production rate of hospital waste. Alongside the building of new hospitals and increments of beds to accommodate this segment, all these are core driving factors increasing the business size of hospital waste concessionaire.

"Waste management and disposal is pegged against the growth of the health care services sector. The more patients seek treatment, the higher production of hospital waste," said Nurul Fatiha.

According to a recent survey, Frost & Sullivan estimated that the total load of hospital waste in Malaysia may soon reach 33,000 tonnes per annum by 2020. Current incinerators design and capacity can only support incineration up to 18,000 tonnes of waste annually and it is very likely that in order to cope with the immediate and the long-term need of the industry, the three concessionaires may invest in building new incinerators or increase the capacity of their existing facilities.