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Evaluation of biomedical waste management practices in public and private sector of health care facilities in India

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Abstract

Proper management of biomedical waste (BMW) is required to avoid environmental and human health risks. The current study evaluated the BWM practices in public and private health care facilities of Fatehgarh Sahib District in Punjab, India. The study was conducted, using a modified World Health Organization (WHO) tool in 120 health care facilities randomly selected from rural and urban areas. At primary health care level, BMW management guidelines were followed in 67.2% of the public sector and 40.4% of the private sector facilities, whereas in secondary health care sectors both private and public sector follows 100% compliance. Health facilities were graded into different categories according to median score, i.e., scores less than < 2.5 was categorized as red (no credible BMW management system in place), scores between 2.5 to 7.5 as yellow (system present but needs major improvement) and scores > 7.5 as green (good system in place for BMW). It was observed that among primary health care facilities, 85% of the public sector and 64% of private sector facilities falls in the red category, whereas for secondary health care facilities only 8% fall in the red category. Logistic regression helped to identify the major factors that affect the performance of the health care facility, and it shows that regular training on BMW and improved infrastructure can improve the BMW management practices. Further, proper management of BMW requires multi-sectoral coordination, which can be better addressed through policies and by providing periodical training to all stakeholders.

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Acknowledgment

Authors would like to greatly acknowledge the support from Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) and Directorate Health and Family Welfare, Punjab, for their support and necessary approval. RK would like to thank Department of Health Research (DHR), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, for providing the Fellowship Training Programme in Environmental Health under Human Resource Development Health Research Scheme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, 160012, India

    Aruna Devi, Khaiwal Ravindra, Manmeet Kaur & Rajesh Kumar

Authors
  1. Aruna Devi
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  2. Khaiwal Ravindra
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  3. Manmeet Kaur
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  4. Rajesh Kumar
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Contributions

AD and KR designed/conceptualized the study and conducted the field work. MK and RK helped to enhance the intellectual content of the protocol and manuscript, including review/editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Khaiwal Ravindra.

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Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical approval

The study protocol was approved by the Institute Ethical Committee via letter number INT/IEC/2018/535 dated 23 April 2018. Permission from Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) and Directorate Health and Family Welfare, Punjab, were also received via letter number EPA/2015/3768 dated 5 Nov 2015 and DHS.BMW-PB-15-01 dated 16 Jan 2015, respectively.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Capsule: Health care facilities were categorized for the better management of biomedical waste and to reduce the public health risks

Highlights:

•Poor BMW management poses a threat to health care workers and the public.

•It is the first study assessing BMW at rural/urban/public and private health facilities.

•Eighty-five percent of public and 64% of primary health care facilities fall in the red category.

•Eight percent of secondary health care facilities are classified under the red category.

•There is a need for proper BMW training for effective BMW management.

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Devi, A., Ravindra, K., Kaur, M. et al. Evaluation of biomedical waste management practices in public and private sector of health care facilities in India. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26, 26082–26089 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-05785-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-05785-9

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