Proposed Solutions to Address the Challenges of Medical Waste Management in Health Facilities in Kamukunji Sub- County, Nairobi City County, Kenya

Abstract

Medical waste management in Kenya has been greatly affected by the country's elevated production levels. The majority of medical facilities do not have an extensive medical waste management system, or if they do, it does not handle waste thoroughly, and therefore is detrimental to humans and the environment. This research focuses on health facilities’ management of medical waste in Kamukunji sub-county, assessing the specific problems of medical waste management in that area. This was a study focusing on healthcare workers that looks at their working conditions and habits. This study was an analytical cross-sectional study design that used Fischer formula for sample size determination. Multistage sampling methods for the selection of 10 health facilities and 141 study participants Before the actual data collection, the questionnaires were pre-tested in one of the public health facilities in Starehe Constituency (Casino Health centre) which was not sampled in the main study. Data was entered, cleansed of errors, and statistically analyzed using SPSS (Version 26.0). Majority of respondents (95.7%) use color to identify different types of medical waste with slightly less than half (49.6%) using labelling, 88.7% store medical waste receptacles inside a health facility, 90.8% had given a contractor to dispose some medical waste with 36.2% and 15.6% of wastes are incinerated and burning respectively. Most of health facilities (39.0%) had daily medical waste weighing less than 26kg with 34.8% and 12.1% weighing between 26-50 kg and 46-100 kg respectively, on observation, the quantity of health facility waste generated at most of selected health facilities was approximately 15 kilograms to approximately 80 Kg. Pumwani Maternity Hospital had the most quantity of medical waste (80Kg), with St Teresa’s Parish Health Centre (50 Kg), Makkah Nursing Home (45 Kg) and the least from Bahati Health Center (15 Kg) during the study period. Majority of respondents (87.2%) did not associate medical wastes with various problems with 12.8% associated medical waste with accidents (55.6%), diseases (27.8%), and drainage blockages (27.8%). The R Square was 0.746, indicating that medical waste management was harmed by a lack of funding, insufficient logistics, a lack of disposal sites, and a lack of understanding. This demonstrated a 74.6 percent variance in healthcare waste management due to a lack of funding, insufficient logistical supply, a lack of disposal site, and a lack of awareness. The remaining 25.4% implies that there were additional issues affecting the healthcare waste management systems of the ten health facilities evaluated. By explicitly identifying a given color with a certain category and its accompanying hazard, segregation aids to safer waste processing. During the research period, Pumwani Maternity Hospital created the most medical waste (80Kg) and Bahati Health Center generated the least (15Kg). The study concludes that periodic updates in medical waste management are necessary, as is refresher training for healthcare professionals and waste handlers. A safe and hygienic system for the handling, segregation, collection, storage, transportation, treatment, and disposal of medical waste should also be in place at every healthcare institution. According to the report, Kenya's National Policy on Injection Safety and Medical Waste Management should be followed by all medical institutions. The strategy aims to emphasize the need of advocating for both the support and execution necessary to adequately manage healthcare waste. Future research might focus on various technologies involved in the treatment and disposal of this waste, or on increasing community knowledge about health care waste.