Role of National Policy in Improving Health Care Waste Management in Nigeria

BACKGROUND. As Nigeria strives to improve health services nationwide, there is a corresponding increase in laboratory testing, care and treatment activities, producing more healthcare waste that must be safely managed. In the past, Nigeria lacked an enabling environment for healthcare waste management, as it did not have a national health care waste management policy. However, in 2013 a policy and strategic plan for healthcare waste management was developed to address this problem. OBJECTIVES. The present study performed an environmental safeguard audit to determine the level of implementation of the 2013 national policy in the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory in Nigeria. We also sought to determine whether the 2013 national policy has had an impact on healthcare waste management. METHODS. The present study was conducted in 1921 health facilities, selected using the probability proportional to size sampling method. RESULTS. The present study found that 44.8% of health facilities surveyed had healthcare waste management work plans adapted from the 2013 national policy. In addition, 89.2% of health facilities segregated waste. This is an important improvement, as previous studies reported that there was little to no waste segregation at health facilities. Furthermore, 41.4% of health facilities had designated persons or units handling healthcare waste, in contrast to previous studies which found no designated person or unit responsible for healthcare waste. However, the quality of healthcare waste management varied across states and health facilities. DISCUSSION. Following the introduction of healthcare waste management policy, health facilities in Nigeria have improved waste management practices. However, training, availability of required tools and functional governance structures are essential to the implementation of an effective healthcare waste management policy. CONCLUSIONS. The study findings show that safe healthcare waste management can be implemented if the government leads by providing policy and required resources, while health facilities put standard operating procedures in place to guide day to day healthcare waste management operations. PARTICIPANT CONSENT. Obtained ETHICAL APPROVAL. The protocol was approved by the National Health Research Ethics Committee of Nigeria. COMPETING INTERESTS. The authors declare no competing financial interests.