Workshop: Disposing waste, not health
To tackle the issue of waste management, a day two-day workshop was held at the CDA Hospital here, in collaboration with World Health Organisation and Environmental Health Protection Unit, National Institute of Health. The workshop included doctors, nurses, paramedics and sanitary workers.
A number of health-care workers were given training on the safe disposal of waste and environmental management-planned practices and facilities.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Jamal Nasir, the focal person of the environmental protection unit at the National Institute of Health (NIH) said the existing hospital waste management in our country is such that, it has no waste management teams. NIH was committed for the last many years to building the capacity of hospitals for the safe disposal of hospital waste. Similarly, there are no standard procedures implemented for waste management in the hospitals. The waste handles are not provided protective clothing.
Recently, Hospital Waste Management Rules 2005 have been approved and need to be implemented in all the hospitals through the formation of advisory committees and the hospital waste management teams. Hospital waste is not being handled properly, thus posing grave risk to the environment. Health care workers, patients ,waste handlers, scavengers and the general public are being exposed to health risks from the infectious waste.
A study conducted by a non-governmental organisation reveals that 80,000 tonnes of solid waste is produced daily in the country. The hospital waste component is just 15 to 20 per cent, but when the hospital waste is dumped with the municipal waste, it contaminates the entire lot. There has been a considerable reporting of high incidences of hepatitis B and C in different parts of the country, with the average prevalence of hepatitis B as ranging between 3-4 per cent (6million) and hepatitis C as 5 per cent (7.5million).
Published in The Express Tribune, May 6th, 2011.
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