The urgent need for hospital managers to allocate more resources to the waste management division of their facilities was a key recommendation from a hospital specific training to staff of the Nairobi Women’s Hospital (NWH).  The training took place from 28 September to 6 October 2011 and it was aimed at increasing their level of awareness to hospital waste management. 30 health workers had the opportunity to increase their knowledge on waste generation profile, mitigation of risks and hazards posed by health care waste as well as set up a waste management committee.

Another key factor from the training was the need for hospitals to link hospital waste management to infection prevention and control, and occupational health and safety divisions. This is because statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO) show that poor healthcare waste practices including waste transport have contributed to new infections like Hepatitis C & B and also HIV in percentages of 32, 40 and 5 respectively. Statistics further show that poor health practices accounts for nearly 250,000 of new HIV infections. The participants recognized the fact that these figures can be reversed if healthcare waste is prioritized and managed properly.

As a build up to the healthcare waste training GIZ will also offer additional onsite support for select facilities to ensure that on service knowledge and skills for NWH staff are sharpened and applied for the good of the facility, healthcare practitioners and the public at large. This will further go towards boosting the morale of workers on health care waste matters.

The training organized by the German Development Cooperation through the GIZ Health Sector Programme is part of an on-going Public Private Partnership (PPP) with the Nairobi Women Hospital to provide technical expertise on healthcare waste management (internal waste logistics and incineration technology). The partnership is supporting private hospitals in Nairobi in ensuring that their internal waste management protocols comply with regulatory requirements and also improve public health quality. Noteworthy, GIZ and Nairobi Women’s Hospital are the pioneers in centralised healthcare waste treatment in Nairobi.

Several pilot studies have been done on medical waste. The Radys children Hospital in the USA has piloted a sharps recycling program with BD- a needles & syringe manufacturer. The sharps recycling program dubbed Eco-finity lifecycle has revolutionized the healthcare waste industry and uses the open loop approach to recycling where waste materials are converted into different items from their original. Examples would include making trash cans from autoclaved/ sterilized used syringes. This successful project can be emulated in other parts of the world but first the waste generators need to learn the ropes of proper healthcare waste management.