Field lessons in surveying healthcare waste management activities in Pakistan.

Mustafa Ali

doi:10.26719/emhj.18.024

Abstract

Developing countries face difficulties in implementing safe healthcare waste management (HWM) practices. It is important to holistically probe the ground situation to meet this challenge. This study aimed to examine HWM practices in public and private healthcare institutions in Pakistan. In this study we surveyed 12 public and private hospitals in a major city of Pakistan, Gujranwala. The survey consisted of waste characterization as well as targeted interviews using standardized questionnaires. The results indicated issues including lack of waste segregation, lack of sufficient knowledge and awareness regarding HWM and a high prevalence of Hepatitis C among hospital housekeeping staff. We also discovered that organizational and administrative solutions for effective HWM are as important as preventive monitoring and control. Apart from technical improvement, behavioural changes are vital for a positive change regarding HWM. Overall, this study led to an increased awareness of public health issues related to HWM that had hitherto gone unnoticed by hospital staff as well as relevant public authorities in the city.

Highlights

Healthcare waste management (HWM) is a serious challenge in many low- and middle-income countries, where infectious medical waste from hospitals is usually discarded in vacant plots or open dumping grounds, which are visited by substance users, stray animals and scavengers resulting in additional public health concerns [1]
There is a shortage of scientific literature regarding compliance with healthcare waste management (HWM) regulations in public or private healthcare institutions and the few existing studies point towards serious deficiencies in HWM across the surveyed establishments [3,4]
We discovered that non-economic motivating factors can influence sound hospital waste management [11]

Summary

Introduction

Healthcare waste management (HWM) is a serious challenge in many low- and middle-income countries, where infectious medical waste from hospitals is usually discarded in vacant plots or open dumping grounds, which are visited by substance users, stray animals and scavengers resulting in additional public health concerns [1]. There is a shortage of scientific literature regarding compliance with HWM regulations in public or private healthcare institutions and the few existing studies point towards serious deficiencies in HWM across the surveyed establishments [3,4]. To fill this gap, we conducted a survey at the public and private hospitals in Gujranwala, which is the fifth largest city of Pakistan with an estimated population of more than 2 million and an annual growth rate of 3.49% [5]. This study led to an increased awareness of public health issues related to HWM that had hitherto gone unnoticed by hospital staff as well as relevant public authorities in the city

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion