THE completion of the US$1M hydroclave waste sterilization system for Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) has been delayed, pending the arrival of Canadian consultants. GPHC Director of Facilities Management Mr. Kamal Haricharan said, last week, that the job is approximately 95 per cent near completion and is expected to be functional either by the end of January or early February.
Apart from the return of the consultants, who are expected to be involved, the commissioning is also dependent on a conveyor that will be used to move the shredded materials into the compactor.
But, with that minor detail out of the way, installation will facilitate GPHC as well as other health care institutions in Georgetown and its environs to handle bio-medical waste.
Bio-medical waste is any solid or liquid type, which may present a threat of infection to humans. It includes non-liquid tissue, body parts, blood and its products, fluids from humans and other primates, laboratory and veterinary waste which contain human disease causing agents and discarded sharps.
If not handled in a proper way, bio-medical waste is a potent source of diseases, like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis and other bacterial types which cause serious threats to human health.
Among the benefits of the new system are the reduction of bacteria to 99.9 percent after bio-medical waste is sterilized; an end product of dry waste, regardless of its original water content; no odour due to the dryness; volume reduction to about 85 percent of the original; weight reduction to 70 per cent of the original and wide acceptance of the end product as harmless.

COMPONENTS
The innovation ill be sited in the northwestern section of the ‘N’ Block of the GPHC compound, comprising 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 be transported 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 it. When steam is introduced in the 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 destroyed.
Health Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy said, with its implementation, Guyana has moved one step ahead.
He said treatment of not only bio-medical waste, but that, which, is generated in the health sector generally, was not recognised as a public health problem in the past. (Vanessa Narine)