Strategic planning for health care waste management (HCWM) covers not only the technical aspects related to waste management such as waste handling, storage, transportation, treatment, and disposal, but also capac- ity-building and awareness creation. It is prudent to note that success in waste management can occur when the staff members working in the health sector dedicate themselves to surmounting the challenges they experience in the areas mentioned.
To confront these challenges, this national HCWM PLAN 2016 – 2021 has been developed to provide viable technical and management options as well as a roadmap for the domestication of the National HCWM Strategic Plan 2015 -2020 in Kenya for the next five years.
This initiative of the Ministry of Health (MOH), together with its development partners—notably the World Bank, the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), and other partners such as the United Nations Development Programme/Global Environment Fund (UNDP/GEF), Government of Belgium and Japanese International Cooper- ation Agency (JICA) —has renewed the focus on HCWM in Kenya.
This is in a bid to domesticate the 2012 environment policy as well as en- sure conformity to the new constitutional dispensation which provides for each person’s entitlement to a clean and healthy environment. This National HCWM plan brings out a deliberate strategy aimed at strengthening the management of HCW within both hospitals and community settings in order to improve and safeguard public health and realize a sustainable safe envi- ronment.
The immediate benefit of implementing this plan is to prevent, reduce and mitigate the likely risks of transmission of infections likely to be acquired from unsound HCWM, such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B, and other health care- associated infections (HAIs) as well as safe guard the environment for sus- tainable development. The plan provides feasible options of applying the best available technologies (BAT) and best environmental practises (BEP) in HCWM.