Observance of Health Care Waste Management Performance Standards in Selected Hospitals

Waste management must be given due priority to address the increase in the generation of hazardous waste, especially infectious waste to ensure the welfare of all users of health facilities. Climate Crisis is a Health Crisis. Our health leaders are continually challenged by the evolving issues and accelerating threats posed by health care waste. Health is everybody’s business. Health systems only work when everyone works together to ensure that no one is left behind. It goes then without saying that this stern reminder extends to our responsibility in health care waste management. It is the responsibility of all hospitals and other health facilities, firstly, as providers of accessible, quality health care services, and secondly, as prudent and conscientious managers of the waste that comes from the service provision. We must treat waste management as the urgent and essential public service that it is. “Health Care Waste” (HCW) includes all the solid and liquid waste generated as a result of diagnosis, treatment, immunization of human beings, research, and production of biological products, among many others.