ADJUMANI.

For the past four months, support staff at the hospital have been dumping medical waste within the enclosure of the incinerator rather than burning it.

The hospital administrator, Mr Michael Ojja, told Daily Monitor on Wednesday that the incinerator broke down because of continuous burning of accumulated waste from the hospital.

“The waste has grown due to the overwhelming number of admissions and individuals visiting the outpatient department. But we need to find solutions to protect the staff and surroundings,” Ojja said.

He said the incinerator was too little to eliminate the hospital’s voluminous medical waste.

Patients admitted to the general ward near the incinerator expressed fear of infections arising from bad disposal of hazardous medical waste.

As stated by the 2013-2014 annual health industry performance record, Adjumani Hospital registers 11,731 in-patients, 83,953 outpatients and 1,695 deliveries.

Scientific facts
Incineration of heavy metals or materials with high metal content (in particular lead, mercury and cadmium) releases toxic metals to the environment and the burnt medical waste contains micro-organisms that are potentially harmful to human beings, according to WHO.