Infectious waste from subdistrict health promoting hospital: How about the amount?

Dear Sir,

Waste management is an interesting issue in public health.^[1] The primary care system by the community health service center is the basic system in any country. In Thailand, health promoting hospital is the primary unit to serve the local people in the community. This kind of primary care center provides only primary care service with no bed for hospitalization. Of interest, the primary care activity can also produce infectious waste and there has been no report on the waste production from this kind of medical service center. Here, the authors studied on the amount of infectious waste produced within 1-year period (201) from 25 health promoting hospitals in Buriram province, Thailand. The average infectious waste per year per health promoting hospital is equal to 141.2 ± 86.2 kg. Of interest, although this rate is less than the general hospital, it is of concern since health promoting hospitals usually locates in the community. The good planning to set waste management system in the health promoting hospital is required. In fact, the problem of improper waste management in general hospital can still be seen;^[2] hence, it is expected for a possible more problem in the promoting hospital, which has a real function as community primary care center.

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Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None

DOI: 10.4103/1755-6783.193979