Assessment Studies on Hospital Waste Management in Imo State

This study was carried out in three hospitals in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria to establish the status of Hospital waste management between September- October, 2011. The three hospitals generated similar categories of medical waste, after evaluating their collection and disposal methods, assessing and comparing the volume and quantity of waste generated by segregation and sorting; General waste measured for 52.8%, Pathology 18.9%, Radioactive 1.9%, Chemical 1.5%, Infectious 5.8%, Sharps 5.85%, Pharmaceutical 5.7, Pressurized container 7.4%. The result further revealed that significant higher quantity of waste was generated in Federal Medical Centre 1075.1kg/week. Colour waste containers were used only in Federal Medical Centre for collection of waste and incineration was also used only in Federal Medical Centre while all the pathological waste was buried in pits. Municipal waste bin and open burning were used for other categories of waste in St. David and General Hospital. However, only 33.3% of the staff in Federal Medical Centre was aware of the WHO guidelines. 53.3% of the respondent was aware of health implications of waste. Finally the refresher course given to cleaners consists of not often from St. David, yearly from General Hospital and 2-3 times yearly in Federal Medical Centre. The studies have shown that none of the hospitals had a waste management team thus waste management practiced in these studied hospitals were not adequate and recommendation was offered for proper waste management.