Waste segregation practices in health facilities in Akuapem North Municipality

Abstract

The desire of international organizations and governments to ensure health care waste from our various health care facilities are properly sorted and segregated is enormous. As a result, different policy programs have been rolled out from sectorial ministries and departments to ensure this noble agenda is achieved. However, it appears the efforts and resources deployed by government and other foreign donors are not yielding the desired outcomes. As a result, the researcher sought to evaluate the awareness level of health care workers on the policies on waste segregation practice under the ministry of health policy guidelines on waste management in Akuapem North municipality. The overall aim of the study is to examine the state of existing waste segregation practices employed by the health care facilities within the Akuapem North municipality as well as the efficiency level of the segregation. This became very necessary due to the likely outbreak of diseases which will adversely affect public health when health care waste is not properly segregated. The methodology used were descriptive design which was used to study the level of awareness of health care workers on the color-coding system as well as the existing health care waste segregation practices, however experimental design was used to study the level of efficiency of the segregation at health facilities. The statistical package for social scientists (SPSS) 20th version as well as Microsoft excel was used for data analysis. From the findings of the study, it was also evident most of the health care workers are ignorant of the need for waste segregation hence they do not practice it, the few ones who practice it, only segregate the waste at the various units but end up mixing them up with other wastes at the end of the day. I recommend that, supervisory ministries should enforce the guidelines of the ministry of health policy on managing waste at the various health facilities.