‘Medical waste handling a top health priority’

LAHORE:

A two-day infection control monitoring training workshop was inaugurated by Khawaja Salman Rafique, the advisor to the chief minister on health, on Wednesday. The workshop was organised by the Directorate General of Health Services as part of its environment and medical waste management plan.

Rafique said the government had given priority to environmental health and medical waste management. He said infection control was a key area in the health sector. He said that effective infection control required regular hand washing, sterilisation of surgical equipment, injection safety, waste segregation and proper disposal of hazardous waste.  He stressed the role of health managers in the implementation of measures for infection control, and enforcement of hospital waste management rules.

Rafique issued directions to develop a comprehensive action plan to scale up infection control and medical waste management plan throughout the Punjab.  He also said 23 hospital waste incinerators had been installed in public hospitals.

Rafique said the government was introducing reforms to achieve health standards set by Health Care Commission. He said the government was working on health managers’ capacity building by organising specialised courses in collaboration with esteemed universities. He issued directions to include infection control as a compulsory subject for all medical and paramedical courses. A proposal for initiating diploma courses in infection control for nurses was also under consideration, he said. Dr Altaf from Indus Hospital, Karachi, and Dr Rosah from Aga Khan University Karachi led the training. Health services divisional directors, programme managers, district officers and deputy district officers health attended the workshop.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2014.