Home|Journals|Articles by Year|Audio Abstracts
 

Original Article



Medical Waste Management Survey in Primary Health Care Centers, Saudi Arabia

Eltigani O.M Omer, Ali S. R. Alsubaie.




Abstract

Background & Aims: Primary healthcare services aim to promote health and prevent health problems. However, waste generated from primary healthcare centers (PHC) potentially harmful to public health and the environment. The aim of this study was to assess wastes management of these centers.

Methods: The data of this observational – cross-sectional study were collected from the available primary healthcare centers in Al-Baha city, Saudi Arabia (N=15 PHC centers). Data collected using standardized questionnaire and observations.

Results: Contaminated sharp and pharmaceuticals pressurized wastes were generated in all PHC centers. About 14 (93.3%) and 13 (86.7%) of the centers were generating wastes of live attenuated vaccines vials and articles contaminated with blood, respectively. Eight (53.6%) of the centers generated more than 3 kg per day of contaminated sharps, followed by; live and attenuated vaccines’ vials. Eleven (73.3%) and 7 (46.7%) of the PHC centers produces 1 to 3 kg of hazardous wastes per day of articles contaminated with blood and waste contaminated with excretion, respectively. All health centers except one were practicing waste segregation properly, and 2 (13.4%) of the centers lacked waste storage method. A total of 5 (33.5%) centers also did not practice any type of dis infection, 7 (46.7%) and 9 (60.0%) of these centers did not have medical waste plan, nor specification for the collection and handling procedures of their medical wastes, respectively. The most common methods used for medical waste packaging were bags (68.8%) and plastic containers (18.8%).

Conclusion: Medical waste management practices were found to be deficient and their amendment highly recommended.

Key words: Biohazards Wastes, Medical Waste, Primary Health Care, Public Health, Saudi Arabia






Full-text options


Share this Article


Online Article Submission
• ejmanager.com




ejPort - eJManager.com
Refer & Earn
JournalList
About BiblioMed
License Information
Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy
Contact Us

The articles in Bibliomed are open access articles licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.