A Study on Biomedical Waste Management of Five Private Hospitals of Imphal City, Manipur, Northeast India

摘要

Biomedical waste (BMW) is associated with risks to health care workers, patients and the environment. Therefore, proper management of segregation, collection, transportation and disposal is very essential. So an attempt is made to assess the knowledgeand methods practiced about various aspects of BMW management among the selected health care workers in Imphal, Manipur, India. Across-sectional study was conducted amongst doctors, nurses, paramedical staffs and auxiliary staffs of five hospitals of Imphal City, India. A total of 556 healthcare personnel consented for interview. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the study unit. A predesigned questionnaire was used for data collection. Data compilation, tabulation and calculation of percentages were done by using SPSS version 20. In the present study it was found that all the five hospitals segregated waste at the source except some new employees were unaware of it. Therewas daily collection of waste in the hospitals and was generally maintained in a register. One hospital provided common incinerator for the entire Imphal city for disposing the biomedical waste. The respondents were observed to be quite aware in both theoretical and practical knowledge of BMW. Proper waste management process is needed to improve BMW management as it is an important and necessary component of environmental health protection.