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Management of Bio-Medical Waste in Himachal Pradesh: A Case Study of Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital, Shimla, HP, India

Ravinder ST

This paper is a qualitative case study about the biomedical waste management practices being followed in a leading healthcare institution in North India. An exploratory qualitative study using purposive sampling was conducted among health professionals and waste handlers of Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla. 60 participants were selected for questionnaire based inquiry and 4 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted to gather data on daily average production and compliance of waste management rules 2016 in the healthcare facility. Thematic content analysis and chi-square methods were used to process the data. The findings suggested that the institution on an average is producing 40 kg to 65 kg of biomedical waste daily. Chi-square analysis showed that awareness about the biomedical waste management rules 2016 significantly affect the quality of biomedical waste management. The study identified potential gaps in handling, segregation, and transport of different types of wastes. Carelessness at point of segregation, lack of periodic training and insufficient allocation of resources were the major critical gaps concluded by the study. However, the study holds the limited transferability due to qualitative design and purposive sampling.