Improvement of waste management capacity at provincial hospitals participating in the Hospital parcipating in the waste management support project

Abstract

The study was conducted on 14 provincial hospitals in the Southern region that were surveyed before and after joining the project from 2015 to 2019. The aim of the study was to describe the change in waste management capacity of hospitals after participating in the project. The results show that the project has contributed to perfecting waste management systemin terms ofpolicy, organizational structure and management processes. However, the proportions of hospitals that have been issued with discharge permits and certifcates of completion of environmental protection facilitiesarestill low (35.7% and 22.2% respectively). There has been a positive change in knowledge and practice on waste management of all groups, especially in the group of departmental management staff, classifed staff, collectors and waste disposal system operators. The monitoring of healthcare environment has also been done much better after hospitals participated in the project.