Abstract:
Healthcare wastes are highly infectious and management of healthcare waste is of great importance due to its
potential environmental hazards and public health risks. In recent years, many efforts have been made by
environmental regulatory agencies towards the better management of wastes through healthcare facilities. This
study brings into focus the organization of waste collection and disposal methods that are being adopted in base
hospitals of Sabaragamuwa Province as a case study, in order to assess human and environmental risks due to their
improper management. According to the adoption level of waste management, composite index called Healthcare
Waste Management Index (HWMI) was developed to assess the hospitals comparatively. Further SWOT analysis was
carried out to identify the weaknesses, strengths, opportunities and threats in each base hospital relate to waste
management. Rules and regulations and national colour code system pertaining to the current practices were also
studied. Calculated index values lie between 0 to 100 and value of 100 for well adoption. Index value obtained for six
hospitals lie in between 56.57 to 27.99, recording the highest Index value from Karawanalla base hospital. All other
hospitals' Index values are less than 50. Average Index value for Rathnapura district is 48.00, which is higher than the
Kegalle district of34.24. Out of 6 hospitals, only one hospital adopts the standard colour coding system. According to
the results obtained from SWOT analysis, the biggest strength of Province was, having of full time infection control
nursing officers. The main threat was high disposal cost. Finally it is concluded that. The management levels of
healthcare waste management of base hospitals in Sabaragamuwa Province are in a optimal condition but none has
reached up to maximum level. Further, study suggested that increasing regular monitoring with staff trainings,
financial and physical resource allocation would enhance the healthcare management in the base hospitals in
Sabaragamuwa Province in Sri Lanka.
