EVALUATION OF HOSPITAL WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AT SAFDERJUNG HOSPITAL, DELHI

Abstract

Hospital waste is one of the major problems in developing countries like India because it causes health impact on human being, plant and on environment. Still hospital waste disposed on road side, which increases health impact on man and animal. This work mainly focuses on Hospital Waste Management system at Safdarjung Hospital. The Hospital Waste Management of Safdarjung Hospital has been studied to assess the quantity of different types of waste generated, total average waste generated per day and waste generation rate per bed per day, available treatment facilities and their efficacy. Based on the study some modifications have been suggested The hospital has 1531beds and the total average waste generated at Safdarjung Hospital is 1694 kg/day with waste generation rate 1.1 kg/bed/day respectively. The Sources of hospital waste were general surgery, Tetanus, paediatric Surgery, Neuro Surgery, Cardio Thoracic Vascular Surgery, Orthopaedics/Rehabiliation, Burn plastic and Maxillofacial surgery, E.N.T and Eye, Gynaecology, Obstetrics, Medicine, Neurology, Dermatology, Paediatric, urology, Cardiology, Respiratory Medicine and Neo-Natal. The maximum infectious waste (excluding plastic waste) was generated in Burn plastic and Maxillofacial surgery, infectious plastic waste was generated in E.N.T and Eye. and non infectious waste generated in Neuro Surgery. Since, the Hospital Waste Management at Safdarjung is quite satisfactory and tests results on incinerator, microwave and liquid waste has been within permissible limit. For further betterment some modifications have been suggested given below (i) For incineration automatic charging system should be used and incinerator should have computer recording devices which automatically and continuously monitor temperature, Co, Coe and 02 in gaseous emission and a tamper-proof PLC (programmable logic control) based control system should be installed. (ii) For microwave, there should be regular testing of sterilized product. (iii) The shredder should be provided with a mechanism so that in case of shock loading it automatically stops This waste management experience should be utilized for smaller hospitals