Enhancing Healthcare Waste Management at Narayani Hospital

September 29, 2022
a woman showing a machine

 

29 September 2022: The Government of the People’s Republic of China and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) jointly handed over a set of autoclave machines and essential healthcare equipment for a waste treatment center at Narayani Hospital in Birgunj, Parsa district.

UNDP Nepal’s Deputy Representative Bernardo Cocco jointly inaugurated the hospital waste treatment centre (WTC) with Narayani Hospital’s Medical Superintendent Dr. Birendra Bahadur Pradhan amid a function at the hospital compound. The WTC is equipped with a set of autoclave machines, which are sterilising machines that use steam to kill harmful bacteria, viruses, fungi, and spores on equipment placed inside a pressurised vessel. The hospital also received various medical equipment like segregation chambers, medical trolleys, waste bins, needle cutters, and personal protective equipment to ensure proper waste management at the hospital. The WTC, along with all equipment, was officially handed over to hospital management by Project Manager Rajesh Verma.

UNDP’s Promoting Green Recovery Project, which implemented this particular programme, provided orientation to 20 officials and training to 45 others on standard operating procedures regarding health care waste management (HCWM). The training, provided by UNDP’s technical team, included orientation on autoclave operation, testing and maintenance. An assessment conducted in 2020 had shown that the hospital alone generates 170.26 kilogram of waste per day.

“This handover event serves as a milestone in the implementation of the project as it could not have happened without the joint efforts of all partners. We hope that it will bring safer health services to communities and benefit the local people. Nothing in the world is more precious than people's lives,” said a representative from the Embassy of China.

5 people in front of a door

 

UNDP Deputy Resident Representative Cocco too expressed hope that the new waste management system would allow the hospital to provide better health care services in Birgunj.

“UNDP has been at the forefront of tackling the effects of the pandemic by supporting provincial and local governments strengthen their health systems by providing much-needed medical supplies, conducting assessment of quarantine facilities, and raising public awareness on COVID-19. We hope that the enhanced waste management capacities will help in effective and proper disposal of medical waste while also providing better health care services in Birgunj,” he said.

The Government of the People’s Republic of China and the United Nations Development Programme have been jointly supporting the ‘Learning from China's Experience to Improve the Ability of Response to COVID-19 in Asia and the Pacific Region on Medical Waste Management’ project to help respond to and recover from the impacts of COVID-19 in Nepal by improving healthcare waste management systems. The project has received financial support from China’s Global Development and South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund and technical support from the China’s Solid Waste and Chemicals Management Center at the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the China National Health Development Research Center, the National Health Commission, and Tsinghua University.

Under this project, UNDP has been working closely with the Government of Nepal’s Department of Health Services under the Ministry of Health and Population and with seven COVID-19 designated hospitals across the country, including Rapti Provincial Hospital, Tulsipur; Koshi Hospital, Biratnagar; Narayani Hospital, Birgunj; Madhesh Institute of Health Science, Janakpurdham; Shree Birendra Hospital, Chhauni; Province Hospital Surkhet, Birendranagar; and Bheri Hospital, Nepalgunj.