ADJUMANI.

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

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

“The waste has increased as a result of the overwhelming number of admissions and people going to the outpatient department. But we must find solutions to protect the staff and surroundings,” Ojja said.

The hospital medical superintendent, Dr Dominic Drametu, said they had asked the government for construction of a new incinerator.

He said the incinerator was too small to dispose of their hospital’s voluminous medical waste.

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

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