MEDICAL WASTE GENERATION AND MANAGEMENT IN INDONESIA BEFORE AND DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

Healthcare facilities estimated to generate approximately 15% of hazardous waste from their total daily waste. The disposal of the hazardous medical waste requires special treatment and should not be mixed with the general waste. However, there are still medical waste products that ended up in regular landfills or dump sites. The improper management of medical waste can cause the discovery of medical waste products in environment that can threaten public health and safety. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic which is predicted that there will be an increase in the number of medical waste generated by the healthcare facilities. This study aims to analyse and compare the medical waste management and the average number of medical waste generated by hospitals in Indonesia before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. In This study, we collected secondary data from the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia and the data will be analysed using descriptive analytics techniques. The results show that there is an increase in the average number of medical solid waste generation in 273 hospitals in Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic, from 59.47 kilograms/day to 68.45 kilograms/day. This is also accompanied by the increased number of hospitals that carry out waste management by its national rules and regulations, from 84.6% to 86.8% during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the coverage of hospital compliance in managing medical waste is not yet 100%, therefore the government should be stricter in monitoring and strengthening the medical waste management system in healthcare facilities to ensure public health and safety.