Borno Af-nship Trains Health Workers On Waste Management

By Ahmed Abu, The Nigerian Voice, Maiduguri

Borno State Primary Health Care Development Agency (BOSPHCDA) and the Additional Financing- Nigeria State Health Investment Project (AF-NSHIP), a World Bank assisted Project, on Tuesday organized a 4-Day Training on Waste Management for Health Facility Managers drawn from contracted General Hospitals and Primary Health Care Centres in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council and Jere Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.

Similar activity was organized last week for Training of Trainers (TOT), mostly stakeholders from National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Project Implementation Unit, Ministries of Health and Environment, Borno State Action Committee on HIV/Aids, BOSPHCDA among others minimize infections generated from improper waste management.

Declaring the Workshop opened on Tuesday at Forshams Centre in Maiduguri, the Executive Director of BOSPHCDA, Dr. Sule Meleh, represented by the Project Coordinator, AF-NSHIP, Mrs. Habiba Saidu said, the training has been effectively put together to raise awareness on public and environmental hazards that may be associated with inappropriate segregation, storage, collection, transport, handling, treatment and disposal of healthcare waste to minimize the risk of infections in the health system.

Earlier, in an interview with the Executive Director, BOSPHCDA, Dr. Meleh in his Office, said, AF-NSHIP is a World Bank assisted project with full support and financial commitment from the Borno State Government through his agency and the National Primary Health Care Development Agency in order to strengthen the Primary Health Care system across the 27 Council Areas of the state.

He added that, the training will identify waste management practices and technologies that are safe, efficient, sustainable and culturally acceptable, to enable the participants including key healthcare providers to recognize the suitable system for management of their healthcare waste through the use of incinerators, which is in accordance with Performance Based Financing (PBF) approach.

Meleh revealed that waste has continued to generate increasing public interest due to the health problems associated with exposure of human beings or clients to potentially hazardous waste arising from healthcare, hence, the need to train all stakeholders on appropriate ways of disposing waste in the society.

He stressed that the agency is optimistic that at the end of the training, participants should be able to understand the problem of nosocomial infections and how to prevent them.

This he said is basic concepts of cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization, hand hygiene procedures and the link between infection control and healthcare waste management would top discussions throughout the training session.

He therefore urged all participants to use the opportunity derived from the training to ensure clean and safe environment in health facilities and communities for healthy living.

The Technical Adviser of AF-NSHIP for Borno and Yobe states, Mrs. Christine Mukwantwali, said, this training for Facility Workers in two pilot LGAs of MMC and Jere is timely considering the fact that the project has been scaled up to more Council Areas of Biu, Askira- Uba, Magumeri, Kaga, Hawul, Shani, Bayo and Kwaya Kusar in 2018.

One of the participants who is the Medical Director, State Specialists Hospital, Maiduguri, Dr. Laraba Bello thanked the organizers of the program, which according to her, as health care providers, would give them adequate knowledge in waste management for safe health care services in the state.