HOSPITAL WASTE MANAGEMENT;

Abstract

Introduction: Hospital waste is a special type of waste which carries high potential of infection and injury. Objectives: Thisstudy was conducted to examine Medical Waste Management Practices in different hospitals of Peshawar. Methodology: Simpleobservational, cross-sectional study. was conducted with a case study approach. Aug-Sep 2011, with selection of 15 hospitals. The datawas collected through a pre-designed questionnaire with a checklist. Results: The study showed that 80% of the hospital personnel knewhospital waste and its management. There was waste management plan present in 30% of hospitals. Although hospitals did not quantifiedwaste amounts but on average the amount of waste generated daily was 0.5-1 kg/bed/day. Segregation into risk and non risk waste wasdone in 93.3% of hospitals. For non risk waste, disposal through Municipal Corporation was conducted in 86.67% of the hospitals, whilein 13.3%, it was burnt. For risk waste, either it was buried or burnt. Proper incineration was carried out in only 33.3% of the hospitals.Discussion: Hospital waste generation, segregation, collection, transportation & disposal practices were not in accordance with standardguidelines. The average waste generation in most of the hospitals was almost equivalent to other under developed countries but less thanthat of developed countries. Conclusions: The hospital waste in the majority of hospitals of Peshawar was mismanaged. No properhospital waste management plan existed except at few hospitals.