Kingswill

The wide spread of Ebola virus has raised the much needed awareness amongst healthcare workers, managers and the general public. However, infection control is a core area of health service that has not received the priority it requires from policy makers and relevant stakeholders. The good news is that we are here to help.

We can assist your establishment setup relevant policies, protocols, SOPs etc to ensure effective infection control.

For additional information on this and other services, please fill the contact form on our website and one of our consultants will be in touch ASAP.

How can Nicole & Kingswill Limited help to improve your health care waste management practices?

Our experts are committed to helping you effectively address these important key elements:

Effective waste reduction and segregation.
Establishment of a comprehensive system that defines clear roles and responsibilities, resource allocation, handling and disposal.
Awareness raising and training about the risks of health care waste and the proper means of handling, treatment and disposal.
Establishment of safe handling, transporting, treatment, and disposal options.
Installation and Management of state of the art medical waste incinerator.

Classes of Healthcare wastes

There are two major fractions of healthcare waste, namely risk waste and non-risk waste as illustrated in Figure 1.0 below.

Figure 1.0: Healthcare Waste Categorized

Healthcare Risk Waste is categorized as waste which is potentially harmful to those who come into contact with it, due to its infectious, biological, chemical, radioactive and sharp content; It is classified as hazardous. On the other hand, Healthcare Non-Risk Waste, includes wastes which are not classified as hazardous. Please note that the term non-risk is used to distinguish this waste from hazardous waste. It should not be taken as implying that the waste is without risk if carelessly handled.

Nicole & Kingswill Limited healthcare waste management strategies aim support you through the implement the waste management hierarchy (Figure 2.0 below). Our framework prioritise waste management options in terms of environmental impact. The first step in good waste management practise is to prevent or minimise the waste we produce. If waste production cannot be prevented, then reuse and recycling are the next preferable options. Generating energy from waste is the next option, while the least favoured option is disposal.

Figure 2.0: Waste Management Hierarchy

Medical wastes include the following:

Pathological wastes (i.e., body parts, aborted fetus, tissue and body fluids from surgery; and dead infected laboratory animals).
Infectious waste (i.e., surgical dressings and bandages, infected laboratory beddings, infectious cultures and stocks from laboratories, and all waste from patients in isolation wards handling infectious diseases).
Sharps (i.e., needles, syringes, used instruments, broken glass).
Pharmaceutical wastes (i.e., soiled or out-of-date pharmaceutical products).
Chemical wastes (i.e., spent solvents, disinfectants, pesticides and diagnostic chemicals).
Aerosols (i.e., aerosol containers or gas canisters which may explode if incinerated or punctured).
Radioactive wastes (i.e., sealed sources in instruments, and open sources used in vitro diagnosis or nuclear medical therapy).
Sludges from any on-site wastewater treatment facilities may be potentially hazardous.

Most wastes generated by hospitals and medical clinics however, are non-hazardous general wastes from hospital organization activities (i.e., including kitchen wastes, office materials, workshop residuals) and patient processing activities in wards which are not handling infectious diseases (i.e., first aid packaging, used but emptied disposable bed liners and diapers, disposable masks, pharmaceutical packaging, etc.). After source segregation of recyclables, disposal is typically by sanitary landfill.

Medical Waste Management Technique

Incineration with recovery of energy is considered the best method of waste management and ranks over plain incineration and landfill. Landfills are the most commonly practiced form of waste management, but the huge requirements of land and the fact that such landfill adds to pollution of grounNetproater and air by the formation of leachates and gases have made city managers wary of this method. Even with incineration, some quantity of waste is produced but this is reduced to just 10 percent of the original waste.

So in effect incineration is considered a very effective method of waste management most especially in the healthcare industries.

For additional information on our range of incinerators, please e-mail us or fill the contact form on our website.

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