Identifying Sustainable Biomedical Solid Waste Management Practices in the Context of Limited Resources in Selected Healthcare Facilities in Douala Cameroon

Abstract

Aims: To Identify sustainable Biomedical solid waste management practices in the context of limited resources in selected HCFs in Douala, Cameroon. Study Design:  A cross-sectional survey with quantitative and qualitative study design was adopted for data collection from workers in the HCFs and also identifying the process of waste management. Place and Duration of Study: This study was carried out in the some selected HCFs in the Douala region of Cameroon between January 2023 to June 2023. Methodology: Study respondents were working in different sections of the HCFs and comprised of the following categories: doctors, laboratory scientists, cleaners, nurses and administrative/clerical workers. Field visitations and interactions with HCFs officials took place during the random sampling technique which was used in determining the sample size of 200 workers, Out of the sample size of 200 who were given questionnaires in order to provide data for the study, 150 valid mail questionnaires were retrieved and used for analysis. Every questionnaire was verified by validity. There’s also questions related funds, facilities availability, training and personal protective equipment. All of the data were coded and analyzed. The results were calculated based on sums and percentages of variables with SPSS vers.26 software and chi-square analysis with the level significance of p-value less than 0.05 was analyze Results: This finding could also indicate that imbibing sustainable biomedical wastes management practices increases with higher experience in the hospital. Furthermore, communal bin disposal of biomedical wastes was the only statistically significant category under disposal method, indicating that waste disposal may be lacking in terms of sustainable practices. [30] also identified biomedical wastes disposal in open dumps among health workers in Saudi Arabia, attributable to poor sustainable waste training and lack of regulatory frameworks. I PCA results indicate that there are two dimensions of prevalent biomedical wastes in the hospital studied, as explicated by the two components retained Conclusion: The limited resources and government policies and local councils influences sustainable waste management practices and this paper aimed at identifying some of the solutions towards improving Sustainable waste management policies. The practice of biomedical waste management in the study area was low. Level of education, taking training on biomedical waste management, availability of color-coded three bins, and attitude of health care workers were significantly associated with biomedical waste management practices. Hence, in-service training is recommended to improve biomedical waste management practices.