CORE FUNCTIONS

CORE FUNCTIONS/ RESPONSIBILITIES

The department/unit of Environment Health Services plays a leading role in prevention and control of preventable diseases. The following are core functions of the Environmental Health Services:

• Sanitation: Ensuring daily routine inspection of the whole hospital premises to detect and abate environmental health nuisance. It includes offices, wards, toilets, food premises (Kitchen, Canteen), disposal depot, drainages, hospital lawns, hospital plants and flowers and the surrounding in general.
• Waste management: To ensure effective collection of both medical and domestic waste from every point of generation in the hospital to a designated refuse house before final disposal by the contracting firm (LAWMA) in charge of evacuation.
• Pest and Vector control: To ensure effective control of pest of public health important such as rodents, bedbugs, mosquito, lice, termite and cockroaches with appropriate pest management methods.
• Sewage management: To prevent septic tanks from discharging into the adjourning ground within the hospital that is liable to cause obnoxious odor and outbreak of diseases.
• Food Control: To ensure high standards of personal hygiene of food handlers/vendors. Also, ensure food prepared, served is wholesome for patient/staff consumption.
• Water sanitation: This sub unit carries out the following:

• Identify source of water supply in the hospital.
• Identify possible pipe borne water leakages and report to appropriate authority.
• Discourage the laying of pipes along the drains.
• Take/collect regular water samples for bacteriological and physio-chemical analysis.