Assessment of Medical Waste Management in Teaching Hospitals in Mosul City: A Descriptive Study

Background and aim: Medical waste management is of great importance due to its infectious and hazardous nature that can cause undesirable effects on humans and the environment. The objective of this study was to identify segregation, storage, transportation, treatment and disposal practices in teaching hospitals in Mosul City. Material and method: A descriptive study is designed to assess medical waste management in Mosul Teaching Hospitals started from December 2012 to March 2013. The target population (health personnel) of study is approximately (448) participants served in mentioned hospitals were asked to answer study questionnaire. Statistical processing was conducted by the use of SPSS version 17 and Minitab. Chisquare test was used as the test of significance to determine the presence of association between variables; P < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: The results indicated that 79.2% of the respondents indicated that each type of waste clearly identified by a coloured code or symbol. The results also showed that 75.1% of the respondents stated that the waste is stored collected regularly. The most significant result with respect to whether the means of conveyance and transport are cleaned regularly was 40% of the respondents stated that they have no idea about that. The results also showed that 53.8% of the respondents stated that there is no other options rather than incineration have been examined for final disposal of medical waste. Conclusion: The study concludes that the segregation of medical waste is done regularly and effectively, i.e. each type of medical waste is identified by a coloured code, and there are containers and bags everywhere waste is generated. Concerning to medical waste transport the means of conveyance and transport are available but there is lack of maintenance of these means or replacing them with new ones. Keywords: medical waste management, segregation, collection, transport, final disposal.