THE 2012/2013 Auditor-General report has revealed that waste incinerators at several referral hospitals across the country are either not in use, have broken down or emit toxic smoke that is dangerous to human health.

But waste incinerators are one of the most important infrastructures of any major hospitals. When they do not operate according to required standards, the risk of setting up a vicious cycle of ill health is higher than thought.

The hospital is one of the least healthy environments to visit. This is where a healthy person goes and risks catching infections. So imagine an incinerator, a facility where waste ranging from used needles and syringes to soiled dressings, body parts, diagnostic samples, blood, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and radioactive materials are disposed of.

Without incinerators, it means the communities around health facilities are at risk of infections that can emanate from the improper disposal of all these waste materials.

Yet, again, with a faulty incinerator or one operating at non-standard performance such as poor temperature regulation, the risk is what the Auditor General summed up as "emitting smoke that is dangerous to children and pregnant women.”

The World Health Organisation says poor management of healthcare waste potentially exposes healthcare workers, waste handlers, patients and the community at large to infection, toxic effects and injuries, and risks polluting the environment. 

It is essential that all medical waste materials are segregated at the point of generation, appropriately treated and disposed of safely.  

Short of this, the Rwf1.5 billion the Ministry of Health spent on supply and installation of incinerators in seven hospitals and Mageragere site would go to a worse waste than the hospital waste materials, because with the health of persons compromised, the government would have to spend more billions of francs in meeting the health needs of citizens accruing from poor waste disposal.

That is not to mention the hazards to environment.

The Ministry of Health should treat waste incinerators as indispensable facilities of the hospitals.