EPA examines healthcare workers on waste management

The Greater Accra-Tema Region of the Environmental Protection Agency has examined some healthcare workers on biomedical waste management in the region.

Shepherd Care Medical Centre, Pleasant Medical Centre, and Sakumono Community Clinic were among the close to 50 health facilities that participated in the exercise.

Mr. Herbert Edem Kpodo, Principal Programme Officer, conducted the test during an EPA Mentorship Programme and said it was to ascertain the level at which the healthcare workers understand the classification of waste management and also raise awareness on the need for every health facility to take waste management seriously.

He expressed satisfaction at the end of the test and congratulated the hospitals for acquainting themselves with waste segregation and management, urging them to be advocates of good waste management in the country.

He said the classification of waste helped the facilities manage risks of harm to human health and the environment from waste as well as meet the requirements of the Agency.

Mr. Kpodo added that segregation of waste was matched with color coding and labeling, which made identification of the various types of waste easy as well as identifying the type of waste that had accumulated and finding ways to reduce it.

He said there were several wastes generated in the healthcare facilities, and although the cost of dealing with biological waste was crucial, they found specially trained people to deal with the waste.

"Whenever general waste, whatever waste, mix with biological waste, the entire waste becomes biological, just like this is my water; whenever it mixes with unclean water, the water becomes unclean," he stated.

He mentioned that the stages of healthcare management were waste minimization, waste generation, segregation at source, internal storage, package and labeling, and internal transportation, and urged that every health facility have a management team.