COMPLETION of the US$1M Hydroclave Waste Sterilisation System (HWSS) at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) has been delayed pending the procurement of an automated bucket, which is expected to be in place by August.
Health Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, in an invited comment last week said: “I am disappointed at the sloth in the full implementation of this system…the automated bucket is being procured at this time at a cost of about $8M.”
He explained that the automated bucket is intended to take waste from the truck and from the waste containers into the system.
According to him the automated bucket allows for the picking up of the waste from the special waste containers and from the sanitation trucks to the compacters and then return to containers to the “wash” area for sterilisation, before returning to the truck or to the designated area for waste containers.
“This (the Hydroclave system) is only part of the effort we have made to ensure safe handling of hospital and health facilities biomedical waste,” Dr Ramsammy said.
He said  other interventions to address handling of biomedical waste in the health sector include the Automated Incinerator at New Amsterdam Hospital, which has been processing biomedical wastes from the hospital and other hospitals and health facilities in Region Six (East Berbice/ Corentyne).

PARADIGM SHIFT

“This (the Hydroclave system) represents a paradigm shift in the way we process biomedical waste and brings, at least in the Georgetown area, our system up to developed countries standard. This has been a committed effort by the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the World Bank and with Global Fund,” the Health Minister said.
The new system is expected to facilitate the GPHC as well as health care facilities in Georgetown and environs in handling bio-medical waste.
Bio-medical waste is any solid or liquid waste which may present a threat of infection to humans. It includes non-liquid tissue, body parts, blood, blood products, and body fluids from humans and other primates, laboratory and veterinary wastes which contain human disease-causing agents, and discarded sharps.
To this end, bio-medical waste, if not handled in a proper way, is a potent source of diseases, like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis and other bacterial diseases causing serious threats to human health.
Among the benefits of the system for health care facilities are: the reduction of bacteria by 99.9 per cent after bio-medical waste is sterilised; having an end product of dry waste, regardless of it’s original water content; no odours due to the dryness, volume reduction to about 85 per cent the original volume; weight reduction to 70 per cent of original weight; and wide acceptance of end product as harmless waste.
The Hydroclave system will be sited at the Northwestern section of the ‘N’ Block of the GPHC
The Hydroclave system has five components: a specially designed and dedicated vehicle to transport bagged infectious waste for treatment; a scale to monitor the waste from every healthcare facility; a double-walled cylindrical vessel which processes the waste; a shredder which provides post-processed shredding of the waste; a compacter to reduce the volume of treated waste; a bin to collect and store treated/ compacted waste, and a skip truck to collect bins of treated waste to a municipal landfill.
The system uses essentially a cylindrical vessel, horizontally mounted, with one or more top loading doors, and a smaller unloading one at the bottom. The vessel is fitted with a motor driven shaft; to which is attached powerful fragmenting/mixing arms that slowly rotate the vessel. When steam is introduced in the vessel jacket, it transmits heat rapidly to the fragmented waste, which in turn produces steam of its own. During the process the waste is shredded, dehydrated and harmful micro-organisms are destroyed.

MORE NEEDED

The Health Minister stated that while advances have been made, there is still room for more to be done.
He said: “While we have indigenously built incinerators without automated controls at some of the health facilities in Region Five (Mahaica/ Berbice), there is need for more comprehensive management of biomedical wastes in Region Five.”
Dr Ramsammy noted that the biomedical wastes from Region Five will be sent to both the New Amsterdam Incinerator and to the GPHC Hydroclave.
“We are instituting the transportation arrangements and these would become effective before the end of 2011,” he said.
Turning his attention to Region Three (Essequibo Islands/ West Demerara), the Health Minster noted that wastes are to be managed by locally built incinerators following models designed with the help of Pan American Health Organisation/ World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO).
However, Dr Ramsammy stated that for the Leonora Diagnostic Centre and West Demerara Regional Hospital these wastes will be picked up by GPHC for processing at the GPHC Hydroclave.
“The Ministry of Health is putting together plans to construct an incinerator at the Mabaruma Hospital shortly,” A comprehensive plan for the management of biomedical wastes is in place and these are being implemented such that Guyana would have a country-wide system by end of 2012,” he said.
Dr. Ramsammy stressed that even with the system being in place only in a limited way; Guyana is playing a leading role in the safe handling of biomedical wastes.
He is contending that with the new system to treat bio-medical waste Guyana has moved one step ahead, particularly since the treatment of both bio-medical waste and other waste generated by the health sector has not been recognized as a public heath problem.