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Bir to manage hospital waste
KATHMANDU, AUG 19 -
For Sarita Shrestha, the housekeeping in-charge at the Bir Hospital, managing the waste generated by the hospital feels like everyday battle. Bir Hospital, one of the oldest, biggest and busiest hospitals of the country, generates medical wastes on a par with its size. Lack of proper system to deal with hazardous waste has added to her woes.
However, the Bir Hospital is laying the groundwork to install a waste management facility, which would not only ease the job of housekeeping staff but also lessen the risk of clinical wastes becoming contagious.
The hospital management reached an understanding with the Health Care Foundation (HECAF-Nepal), a non-governmental organisation working in healthcare waste management, on July 20 to dispose of its trash safely. Under the programme, some 100 staffers have been trained on clinical waste management and the hospital has declared to develop the male ward as a model in waste disposal. The hospital has also formed a waste management committee under the chair of its director Dr. Buland Thapa to facilitate process.
“We have already started segregating medical waste on the basis of risk, keeping them in separate coloured buckets, mainly at male ward that has been declared a model ward for waste management,” added housekeeping chief Shrestha.
On the hallway of the 26-bed male ward, three bins of different colours have been kept to ensure the segregation of waste into biodegradable, paper, and plastic. A needle disposer machine has also been placed in this ward to deal with the clinical waste. “This system has made us more conscious about managing infectious waste,” said Padma Laxmi Maharjan, the male ward in-charge.
Prior to launching the project, HECAF-Nepal officials had made an assessment on the state of medical waste generation in the hospital from 7 Nov. 2009 to 4 Feb. 2010.
The study showed that 333 kg healthcare waste is generated at Bir Hospital everyday when there is 65 percent occupancy, while the waste volume reached over 500 kg during the full occupancy. Of the total waste, 75 percent is highly infectious.
Posted on: 2010-08-20 08:10
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