Paper Title
Assessment of Health Care Waste Management Practices in Papua New Guinean Hospitals

Abstract
Healthcare Waste Management (HCWM) is an important and crucial practice in healthcare facilities. HCWM is a vital issue not only to hospitals, but also to the environment, law enforcement agency, and to the general public. Despite of attempts at several levels, governments, NGOs, research organisations and HCUs a little success has been attained in managing these wastes properly or controlling the environmental and health hazards caused by these health care waste. One significant step in this regard would be to develop a technique to measure the degree of success of waste management practices. In the present study, we assessed the Angau Memorial General Hospital (AMGH) in Lae, Papua New Guinea in terms of the knowledge, management and overall practice of Health Care Waste at the hospital. Our assessment included a survey questionnaire, general observations and dialogue with the hospital staff. This research proposed a framework to calculate WMI that would represent the degree of effectiveness of the waste management practices as a numerical value. If the WMI value of any organization is more closer to best value in comparison to the worst value then it could be inferred that the HCU is doing good in managing its waste. Keywords - Health Care Waste Management(HCWM), Graph Theory Matrix and Approach (GTMA)