From November 21^st to 24^th, Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) will be participating in a Health Care Waste Management (HCWM) Workshop in Kathmandu, Nepal. Organized by the World Health Organization, South-East Asia Regional Office (WHO/SEARO), and aimed at the health program managers of the region's countries [1], the workshop will review the status of the progress on health care waste management in the region, share and learn from various country experiences, and make recommendations to improve management.

The event is a follow-up on a similar meeting organized in 2011 (click here for more information on HCWH’s participation).

Ruth Stringer, HCWH’s Science and Policy Coordinator for Global Projects, has been invited to participate as an international expert, and will present on Waste minimization and management: combining strategies to reduce the impact of pharmaceuticals on the environment.

Mahesh Nakarmi, Director of the Health Care Foundation of Nepal (HECAF), a strategic partner of HCWH will speak on HCWM in small health care facilities and Global Green and Healthy Hospitals (GGHH) member Dr Ming –Nan Lin, Vice superintendent, Dallin Tzu Chi Hospitals in Taiwan will provide a presentation: HCWM from Policy to Practice. The program features topics including innovations in recycling of health care waste, bio-digestion, injection safety, management of laboratory waste and the importance of waste management during disease outbreaks.

As part of the event, there will be field visits to GGHH members, Paropakar Maternity & Women’s Hospital, Kathmandu Medical College and Government run Budhanilkantha Health Post.  HECAF are also organizing an exhibition of healthcare waste management technologies- from needle cutters to autoclaves- being used in Nepal.   The Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation DAAI Technology are bringing recycled clothes and other materials made from PET bottles to show the delegates.

Notes

[1] Countries who are part of the WHO SouthEast Asian Regional Office (SEARO) include: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste