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Assessment Of Healthcare Waste Management Practices Among Health Workers
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Furthermore, increase in patient turned-out has increase the generation
of healthcare waste. Mboguwe, Mimereki and Magashula(2008) also reported
that increase in population results to increase in healthcare
facilities that lead to increased healthcare waste generation. It is
expected that because of this increase, more attention should be paid to
and priority given to proper healthcare waste management in Abeokuta
South Local Government (ASLG). Management of healthcare waste continues
to present an array of challenges especially as economic situation of
the country deepen daily therefore, healthcare waste management has
become a concern.
So many studies have been conducted on healthcare
waste management but little or no work has been done concerning
segregation of clinical waste which is a vital aspect in healthcare
waste management (Coker, Sangodoyin, Sridhar, Booth, Olomolaiye, 2009).
Segregation of waste is crucial in healthcare waste management because
it is the first step in clinical waste management. Segregation of
healthcare waste helps in reduction of the quantity of waste that is
hazardous. Once healthcare waste are segregated, collection will be
easy, proper storage will be done and disposal of infectious waste
carried out in the way that it will not pose any harm to health
workers, patients and the environment (WHO, 2014). Proper management of
healthcare waste depends on good organization, sufficient funding and
active participation of trained personnel. It was observed that
healthcare facilities were not spending resources on clinical waste
management Healthcare facility must allocate resources for colour coded
bags and training of generator of healthcare waste for proper
segregation and disposal for its sustainability. The intention of this
study is to assess healthcare waste management practices at health
facilities in Abeokuta South Local Government.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Indiscriminate
dumping of untreated hospital waste in Municipal bins increases the
chances of survival and mutation of pathogenic microorganism population
in the municipal waste, which can lead to disease epidemics and
increased incidence of communicable disease in the community. The
prevalence of infectious disease like Hepatitis B, C, Measles, Acquired
immunodeficiency syndrome, Tuberculosis, Chickenpox, Cholera and others
has also been traced to the inappropriate segregation and disposal of
hospital waste (Sreejith, 2008).In Ogun State, the researcher observed
that the healthcare facilities neglected healthcare waste management in
the area of segregation and disposal. Materials required for segregation
and disposal of these hospital wastes are not provided by the
constituted authority, thus these pose a serious threat to the health
workers, patients, environments and the community at large. There has
been recent cases of hospital acquired infectious diseases among health
workers which has been traced to contamination from healthcare waste,
leading to untimely death of some of these health workers.
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