Abstract

Inadequate handling of healthcare wastes has serious public health consequences and a significant impact on the environment. The problem of how to manage healthcare wastes has become one of a critical concern in Ethiopia. This study aimed to assess the current healthcare wastes segregation, treatment and disposal practices of 32 randomly selected governmental healthcare facilities in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A pre-tested checklist was used to collect data and data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. Less than half 102 (42.9%) of healthcare delivery sections had safe healthcare waste segregation practice with hospitals being better as opposed to health centers (X²=51.64, df=1, p<0.001). Using a Mann-Whitney test, the segregation practice score was significantly higher in hospitals compared to health centers (U=3227(Z= -5.584), p=0.000). Moreover, the median healthcare wastes segregation practice score significantly vary between healthcare delivery sections and between healthcare facilities with Kruskal-Wallis test (X²(4) =87.07, p=0.000) and (X²(31) =53.35, p=0.008) respectively. It was observed that 23(82.1%) and 26(81.2%) of incinerators and placenta pits were in poor conditions respectively. Governmental healthcare facilities healthcare waste segregation practice was minimal. Numerous deficiencies were frequent in all observed incinerators in addition indiscriminate disposal of healthcare wastes was a great concern. Hence, establishing strong healthcare waste management policy along with well organized healthcare waste management system at all levels is a far better approach to safeguard healthcare workers, patients and community from impending short and long term consequences.

Key Words: Healthcare wastes, Segregation, Treatment, Disposal, Governmental healthcare facilities, Ethiopia

DOI: https://ejesm.org/doi/v11i1.7