EVALUATION OF PREVAILING HOSPITAL WASTE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND THEIR IMPROVEMENT: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

For any civic community, providing health care facilities to the public, safe and effective disposal of hospital waste is of critical importance. It is not generally realized that such waste, if not properly disposed off, can pose a grave biological hazard which, in the extreme cases, could act as a self inflicted catastrophe. Hospital waste disposal, therefore, is an issue which has to be given its due importance and dealt with seriously by the health institutions. It is ironic that we run our medical facilities to save lives, yet the same institutions are generating waste, which at times, is highly infectious, and could be life threatening. Hospital waste management has got good effects on the hospital environment. Due to such management the morbidity rate of the different hospital areas will be reduced greatly. Appropriate, correct and timely Hospital waste management i.e. segregation, collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of infectious waste is necessary. There by the spread of infection is reduced and ultimately spread of disease is also controlled especially in areas of hepatitis, HIV and AIDS. It should be acknowledged that there is a need for controlling spread of infection through the hospital waste. The waste management plans should be made since they provide the best mechanism for improvement in environmental performance in waste management. Thus, Wastes originating from health care establishments, when properly managed , pose no greater risks than that of properly processed domestic or industrial waste. Introduction of improved solutions for the segregation of waste within health care facilities can result in reduced amounts of waste requiring special treatment. With this motivation, the Environmental Health Unit, of the Ministry of Health, Government of Pakistan, in collaboration with the WHO had to launch/implement hospital waste management programme in all the four provinces of Pakistan. Nominated by the Punjab government, the Hospital Waste Management was implemented/launched at the Rawalpindi General Hospital, as a pilot project. This study was aimed to implement Waste Management System, at a local hospital to promote and help in maintaining the health of the workers of a health care system. More importantly, the necessary physical infrastructure was strengthened, with the collaboration of WHO, and training was imparted to all healthcare workers, so that, at least the first effective step towards safe and effective disposal of the hospital waste would be taken. The study was conducted in the following steps:STEP-I: Initial Survey STEP-2: Training STEP-3: Facility provision This project/study included the procurement of equipment and development of a comprehensive training module, for the awareness of medical workers (doctors, nurses, laboratory staff and sanitary workers etc.), about safe handling of waste, emphasizing on segregation. Moreover, the lecture material, designed both in English and in Urdu, was presented through the standard audiovisual aids. The questionnaires prepared for each category of the hospital staff, can be used as a tool for the quantitative assessment of the waste management, either at a government or at a private hospital. Thus, it was attempted to address all the issues and provide support for the achievement of improved environment performance in managing the hospital waste. Finally, based on this study some conclusions have been drawn , recommendations for future course of action have been given, and some disposal/treatments of hospital waste have been suggested.