Spatial Assessment of Hospital Waste Generation and Associated Human Health Risks in Sargodha City
Abstract
Healthcare waste is a significant environmental and public health issue because healthcare produces different categories of waste streams which are different in quantity and hazard properties. The present study aimed to evaluate the hospital waste generation in selected hospitals of Sargodha city, Punjab, Pakistan and its impact on environment and its impact on human health. This study was a descriptive, field study of the quantitative approach. Primary information was collected from 15 selected hospitals using available waste generation records from hospitals and some field observations to support the information. The variables included were average daily, weekly and monthly waste generation, patient admissions and bed capacity. Geographic Information System (GIS) technique was used to represent the spatial distribution of the selected hospitals. The findings indicate that all the selected hospitals reported a total of 42.6 kg of waste per day, which came up to 298.2 kg for a week and 1278 kg for a month. The average was 2.84 kg per day of waste per hospital. The highest average daily generation was at Sadiq Hospital with 7.2 kg/day while Kings Hospital, Bhatti Medical Complex Hospital and Al-Abbas Hospital had 1.2 kg/day each. The daily waste streams reported were red = 10.65 kg / day, and yellow = 31.95 kg / day, that is 25% and 75%, respectively. The results suggest that there were significant disparities between hospitals and data suggest waste generation is not solely determined by the number of beds. Inadequate segregation, containment, collection, treatment and disposal of hospital waste have the potential to create an occupational and environmental risk. The study does not however take place in the lab, nor does it sample the environment or make individual disease assessments; therefore, it also cannot determine any direct results of disease or environmental contamination. This study establishes baseline data on generation rates of waste in hospitals of Sargodha city and facilitation of a waste management plan with the consideration of real time data related to the quantity of waste level in the specific hospital.
Keywords: hospital waste; healthcare waste; waste generation; human health; GIS; Sargodha City; Pakistan.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22729245
