Ondo plans new policy on health waste management

The Ondo State Government is set to produce a workable policy on Healthcare Waste Management aimed at protecting the healthcare workers and various communities from the risk of medical waste.Already, the state Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources has awarded the production of the draft to a consultancy firm.The commissioner in charge of the ministry, Chief Sola Ebiseni, disclosed this in Akure, the state capital, while addressing a stakeholders forum for the review of the healthcare management policy for the state.According to him, the document would also provide implementation process and guidelines with a view to protecting human health from danger or threat from avoidable damage of medical waste.According to the commissioner, medical wastes are potential disease transmission media such as HIV, Hepatitis B and C viruses which are live threatening.He noted that not only do medical wastes pose direct danger, but when they were not properly disposed off, they presented a continued risk to people exposed to them, especially healthcare workers, patients and communities.He added that the policy applied to all manufacturing industries, private or public health institutions, dental or veterinary clinics, laboratory, hospital or service within the state which generates, collects or process hazardous waste with the intent of disposing the waste at the state designated landfills and dumpsites.The commissioner said the forum became necessary in view of the bottom-up approach of government to ensure that the relevant stakeholders were carried along.
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