Assessment of the management and disposal practices of medical waste in the Hospitals of

Mogadishu city, Somalia (2011-2012)

by

Ahmed Adam Mohamed Warsame M.Sc. In public and environmental health

2012

Introduction

The safe and effective disposal of medical waste starts with the health care practitioners, and there is a very need to reduce both the cost and environmental impacts arising from the generation and disposal of waste in the hospitals.Doing further researches in this field is very crucial to explore more about the risks of the medical waste in Somalia, identifying the health problems due to the mismanagement of the medical waste in the hospitals, this even could participate rising the awareness of the people towards the great risks of the medical waste and unsafe disposal practices.

This study aims to assess the medical waste management and the safe disposal in the hospitals of Mogadishu city, examining the medical waste practices in Somalia and revising the plans and procedures for medical waste management, And insuring if there is a policies procedure, rules and regulations set forth by the ministry of health or hospital directory to be followed for managing medical waste in the hospitals, and discovering the obstacles and problem for proper medical waste management.

Medical waste definition Very broadly medical waste is defined as any solid or liquid waste that is generated in the diagnosis, treatment or immunization of human beings or animals, in research pertaining thereto, or in the production or testing of biological” (BAN & HCWH, 1999)

Medical waste classification

The World Health Organization classifies medical or healthcare waste into communal waste or general waste and special waste. Communal or general waste is all solid waste not including infectious, chemical, or radioactive waste. This waste stream can include items such as packaging materials, bedding, waste water from laundries, office supplies and other substances that do not pose a special handling problem or hazard to human health or the environment (WHO 1999)

Objectives

General objective: The main objective of this study is to assess the medical waste management practice, safe disposal of medical waste in the hospitals of Mogadishu city.

Specific objectives

To indicate mismanagement practices of the medical wastes at the hospitals of Mogadishu city. Investigate the problems and constrains in managing medical waste. Insuring the existing policies and procedures for the medical waste management

3.1 Study design

Type of the study was cross-sectional retrospective hospital based

3.3. Data analysis

The analysis is essentially descriptive data; the analysis was extracted from questionnaire and personal interview carried out by the researcher.

Methodology

In the research it is used the descriptive method, aiming at collecting data from the hospital staff (doctors, medical assistants and cleaners) by using questionnaires. Objective observations and interview also where used, then analyzing the data in statistical software.

Location Mogadishu Bandir region Somalia

Result

The department which generates the highest amount of waste.

The department which generates the lowest amount of medical waste.

Frequency Percent%

No 30 100.0

Existence of medical waste committee.

Segregation of the waste in the hospitals

Segregation FrequencyPercent %

No 30 100.0

Disposal methods

Disposal Method Answer

Autoclave N

Incineration N

Land disposal Y

Burial Y

Burning Y

Mostly used facilities

Symbol labeling of the waste

Symbol Frequency Percent %

No 30 100.0

management process when dealing with broken bags and waste and then decontaminating them

Process Answer

Identification of waste type No

Separation of non-infectious or general waste from

infectious waste.

No

Transferring all waste bags on wheeled containers and

using utility gloves

N0

Packaging. No

Registration of waste

Registering Frequency Percent %

No 30 100.0

Mismanagement acts of medical wastes

The administrators of the three hospitals have agreed that there is mismanagement acts of medical waste management, and they justified that they don’t have the disposal technologies and educated staff for medical waste management and safe disposal. Also the administrators indicated that none of the hospital provides annual education or training on waste management for the employees.

Conclusion Medical waste must be separated from municipal waste, but in many parts of Africa it tends to be collected along with the rest of the waste stream. Poor management of medical waste has serious health implication to health workers, patients and the public; also, due to the toxic nature of medical waste, improper handling may lead to serious health problem, destruction of natural environment and disturb the balance of the ecosystem. This study examined the medical waste management practices in three of the major hospitals in Mogadishu city Somalia, from the results of the study; it is obvious that medical waste management is not practiced according to WHO,s recommended standards, where medical wastes are not properly managed. It is imperative for significant investment in the proper management of medical waste in order to reduce the health risk it poses. The researcher hopes that this study will create the awareness regarding the problem of medical waste management in hospitals and will generate interest for systematic control efforts for effective medical waste management.

Recommendations.

•There must be a separate unit for medical west management in the hospitals •Ministry of health should set regulations for managing medical wastes to be applied in all the hospital of the country. •The hospitals should develop clear policy and plans for proper management of medical waste. •Ministry of health should supervise a regular training and education of all workers in dealing with medical waste, from doctors to cleaners.

•It is very important to measure and quantify the amount of medical wastes generated by each unit of the hospitals to specify which department or unit generates the highest and lowest amount of medical wastes. •Proper segregation is needed for the general waste and medical wastes as well as infectious medical waste and non infectious medical waste.•The study recommends farther researches in this area of study.