Assessment and capacity building in health care waste management in the Republic of Moldova

Injections are one of the most common health care procedures, and poor management of injection-related waste exposes patients, health care workers, waste handlers and, indeed, the wider community, to infections, toxic effects and injuries.

A series of activities in the Republic of Moldova was carried out in 2012 as part of an ongoing WHO initiative to provide technical support to the Ministry of Health in this area.

Scoping missions

Members of a WHO HCWM scoping mission in May 2012 met with Ministry officials and counterparts to:

• review current HCWM policies and recommendations from a previously held national workshop on HCWM;
• review progress of and help finalize a national policy and action plan on HCWM;
• submit recommendations for future steps/activities in improving HCWM policies and practices in the country.

The mission also participated in a National Nosocomial Conference on “streamlining the epidemiologic practice regarding nosocomial infections", where the WHO policy on development of national strategies on HCWM and the related situation and recommendations in the Republic of Moldova were presented.

A second mission on HCWM was conducted by a WHO expert on 3-4 December 2012 to follow up on the recommendations and provide further assistance.

Update of nursing curricula

Following the second mission, a national team of experts was established to update in-service and undergraduate nursing curricula on HCWM and injection safety issues.

Training of trainers workshop

A training of trainers workshop on injection safety and HCWM was organized for staff of a medical college, medical university and health care facility on 5–7 December 2012. The workshop agenda was based on the "WHO best practices for injections and related procedures toolkit", as well as on the HCWM training toolkit developed by WHO/Europe.

An awareness raising workshop on HCWM for managers, head physicians and representatives of medical colleges will be conducted in 2013.