Year- September 2012- November 2012

Partner NGO- The Rural Health Organization (RHO)

Background

BMW management in primary healthcare facility was an emerging issue when Toxics Link intervened in Manipur for the first time. Major problem was lack of capacity in health care workers on this issue. Most of the bio-medical waste, including blood soaked cotton swabs to syringes used to be mixed and disposed off in a single container. There was no segregation and one of the prime reasons for this was absence of color coded bins which is the utmost requirement to manage BMW waste. Reuse of syringes, unavailability of personal protective equipments (PPEs) for waste handlers and open burning of BMW were also some of the other problems in the healthcare centers.

Selection of Hospital

It was decided to cover primary healthcare facilities located at Wangoi and Khumbong blocks of Imphal west district. These primary healthcare facilities included 1 community health centre, 5 primary health centres, 35 primary health sub centres, 2 dispensaries and laboratories attached to these health care facilities.