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. 2021 Dec 2;13(12):e20098.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.20098. eCollection 2021 Dec.

Assessment of Biomedical Waste Management in Health Facilities of Uttar Pradesh: An Observational Study

Anand M Dixit  1 , Priyanka Bansal  2 , Pankaj Jain  3 , Prashant K Bajpai  3 , Rama S Rath  1 , Pradip Kharya  1
Affiliations

Assessment of Biomedical Waste Management in Health Facilities of Uttar Pradesh: An Observational Study

Anand M Dixit et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Background Biomedical waste management has recently emerged as an issue of major concern for every health facility and healthcare provider due to human and environmental hazards. As per government guidelines, every health facility, either large medical institutes or small clinics, should ensure appropriate biomedical waste management at their facilities level. Objective To assess biomedical waste management in various health care facilities of Etawah district. Methodology It was a facility-based cross-sectional assessment that included government and private health facilities. The selection of facilities was done based on a simple random sampling method. All the people in charge of concerned health care facilities were interviewed to know the current biomedical waste management situation concerning health facilities and the problems they face in biomedical waste management. Health care professionals' knowledge was also assessed. Results A total of 56 health care facilities (HCFs) from both government and private sectors were selected. Biomedical waste guidelines are mainly available at tertiary care centers (93%) and secondary care centers (51.5%). Awareness among doctors related to hazards and prevention of hazards (<0.001), knowledge of unused sharps (0.048), contact with a blood-related product (0.003), hazardous waste (<0.001), and need for training (<0.001) are statistically significant with respect to nurses. Conclusions Government of India guidelines on biomedical waste management (BMW) are in place, but the use of guidelines currently is not up to the mark or at a satisfactory level. Spreading awareness of the BMW guidelines and their strict implementation is the need of the hour.

Keywords: biomedical waste management; health care facilities; health policy; india; waste hazards.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Distribution of study sites
CHC: Community Health Center; PHC: Primary Health Center
Figure 2
Figure 2. Distribution of observation according to the type of facility
Figure 3
Figure 3. Problems faced by those in charge of facilities
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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