A Study to take Account of Scientific Management of Waste Generated during Patient Care by General Practitioners in Mumbai City, India

It has been mentioned that scientific management of waste generated during patient care is essential as well as a legal liability of the generator. Unfortunately, complacency and inadequate knowledge followed by practice for waste disposal leads to various kinds of community and individual health and environment issues which are detrimental to the human life. The present study is aimed to take an account of scientific knowledge and it’s practical applicability of BMW among the general practitioners of Mumbai city in India. In the present study general practitioners in Mumbai city were visited and interviewed personally and also administered questionnaire in order to analyse biomedical waste management by general practitioners. 37 (30.8%) belongs to age group 14-50 years followed by 30-40 years (30%). The percentage of male (64.1%) is more than female (35.8%) practitioners. The qualification ranged from BHMS, BAMS, MBBS to MD of which majority ware medical graduates (40.8%). 66.6% practitioners had average while only 23.3% has good knowledge about proper waste management. Maximum concern was shown towards the safety where it scored 80% followed by waste generation (62%), definition (51%), transportation (46%), Colour coding (34%). The study brought out the facts that the deficiency of knowledge and practices of waste management were the main reason for non scientific management of waste generated by general practitioners thus exposing self as well as community at large to health and environment hazards. key words: Bio-medical waste, knowledge, practice, waste management,