Advances in Recycling & Waste Management

Preliminary Assessment of the Status of Hospital Incineration Facilities as a Health Care Waste Management Practice in Addis Ababa City, Ethiopia

Abstract

Dessalew Berihun and Yonas Solomon

Healthcare institutions generate different types of infectious and/or hazardous medical waste that poses enormous risk to patients, healthcare providers, waste pickers, and the community at large, if their disposal is not comprehensively and scientifically managed. This study was focused on the assessment of waste management practice, the status of existing medical waste incinerator facility found in Addis Ababa city government and private hospitals. A cross sectional descriptive study was carried out with the aim of assessing the current facility status and practices. The study approach involved literature review, use of survey, an empirical investigation comprising physical visit, observation checklist, and group discussion. The results showed that poor hazardous waste handling practice indicating all hospital incinerator have 100% some sort of incinerator but in different grade level which were categorized in three groups such as 93% of them were local ordinary brick incinerator in various and poorly designed, constructed and operated manner, whereas 7% of them were modern imported incinerator still among these only 5% of them were functional but still operated below the standard whereas the rest were old and nonfunctional. This paper has highlighted the pitfalls of poor status of incinerator facility and management practices in hospital waste management.