Syringes and other dangerous medical waste may have ended up exposed at dumpsites because people were after the containers they were originally stored in.
At a press conference on Saturday, Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy announced that over the next few days, his ministry will be taking steps to see that all health workers confirm to guidelines for the proper disposal of such waste materials, thus ensuring the safety of all.
Ramsammy said that the hospitals, both public and private need to be commended for the great job that they have been doing as it relates to the disposal of their biomedical waste but said that he is not too certain about what the private practice doctors may have been doing with this category of waste generated at their establishments. He said also that he was fearful about the way in which persons at home got rid of their waste, for example those administering insulin.
These concerns by the minister come against the backdrop of a recent surge of exposed syringes and other medical waste being found on streets and the possibility that citizens could be harmed if they were to come into contact with them.
At a press briefing held at his office, Ramsammy told media operatives that it has come to his attention that when garbage collectors uplift waste from medical institutions, some people are in the habit of taking the sealed containers in which the waste is placed and emptying them of their contents which include needles, syringes, surgical blades, gloves and other items.
The minister said that his ministry has been told of one such person who has been involved in such a practise. According to Ramsammy, some people throw the waste matter out of the containers leaving them exposed, so that they can use the said containers for various purposes of which he said food storage is one.
Ramsammy said he has since urged the municipality and garbage collectors to be more vigilant when handling biomedical waste which should be treated differently and with greater caution as opposed to the way domestic refuse is handled.
He added that though the hospitals have a responsibility to ensure that their biomedical waste objects pass through a process of destruction, sterilisation and disinfection before disposal, it is never one hundred percent free of infections and he is therefore urging citizens to keep far from exposed biomedical refuse to ensure their safety.
Ramsammy said that the Health Ministry is advancing towards the stage where every physician would have to account to the ministry for the method used to dispose of biomedical waste; stressing that persons at home using such materials will not be exempted from accountability either.
As a means of ensuring that this is achieved, Ramsammy said that the Ministry of Health, in the days to come, will be disseminating information to the general public on the measures that should be taken to ensure the proper disposal of such refuse.
At the press briefing, Ramsammy also took the opportunity to announce that Guyana will be celebrating Caribbean Wellness Day shortly. He stressed that for this event, Guyana will be focusing on having every citizen made aware of their Body Mass Index (BMI).
He said that this is important in order for people to lead healthy lifestyles, since failure to know such can result in illness. The theme for this year’s Caribbean Wellness Day is, “Love that body, yours and mine.”
