Today is our topic of discussion Medical Waste Management
Medical Waste Management
This chapter is not included in the curriculum. But the safe disposals of medical waste are already in practice in all the district hospitals and health coniplexes, including medical colleges. So, the writer deemed it important to put few points regarding the topic.
Public health issue:
Healthcare wastes pose a serious public health problem. The main purpose of any health care institution is to provide health care services to prevent the diseases and to cure people who are suffering from various kinds of illness. When visiting health care facilities, patient should not become more ill then they already are.
Hence it is very important to ensure patient safety by keeping the health centre clean and environmentally sound. On the other hand the service provider’s safety during providing health care is also an important issue.
In the majority public and private hospitals no systemic approaches are applied for safe disposal of medical waste. The medical wastes are mixed with the municipal waste in the collecting bins at roadside and buried without any measure or burned under open sky which makes a serious hazard to the environment.
Public awareness of healthcare wastes has grown in recent years, especially with the emergence of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)). In addition, the possibility that healthcare wastes could transmit human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and other agents associated with blood-borne diseases is also a major concern.
Definition of Medical Waste:
Medical waste is defined as any solid or liquid waste generated in the diagnosis, treatment or immunization of human beings or animals, in research or in the production or testing of biologicals.
Medical waste classification:
a) Solid wastes – dust, ash, food-waste, rags, paper, plastic, glass, metals (sharps, needles) etc.
b) Liquid waste (wastewater) – chemicals used in laboratory, pathogen containing urine, blood and other sample for testing disposed off to the vastewater.
Type of medical waste generated in Bangladesh:
General waste –
These are non-infectious and non-hazardous. Examples – Paper, clothes, bottle, packing boxes, carton, left-over food etc.
Hazardous medical waste-
These poses a substantial danger to human, animal or plant life or to the ecosystem. All hazardous waste may or may not be infectious but all infectious waste is hazardous waste.
- Pathological waste – Human tissue, organ, feces, body parts, biopsy products and autopsy materials.
- Sharp waste – Needle, blades, scalpel, razors, broken glass etc.
- Radioactive waste – Solid or liquid waste contaminated with radioactive substances.
- Chemical waste- Reagents, other chemicals may be toxic flammable, explosive and or carcinogenic,
- Infectious waste – Blood, blood products, pus, body fluids, stool or items contaminated with blood, blood products, pus, body fluids, stool etc.
- Pharmaceutical waste – Date expired medication, discarded residual medication used in chemotherapy.
- Pressurized containers – Aerosol cane, empty gas cylinders etc.
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