Professional Assessment of Environmental Management Systems in Nigerian Public Hospitals

This study conducts a professional assessment of environmental management systems in public tertiary hospitals in Nigeria, examining the management of healthcare waste, water quality, energy, and indoor air quality as the primary environmental impact categories in hospital operations. Public hospitals in Nigeria face compound environmental management challenges from inadequate infrastructure, insufficient funding, and staff training gaps, and the systematic assessment of environmental management quality across geographically diverse facilities provides a foundation for improvement planning. The assessment was conducted at eight federal and state tertiary hospitals across Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Enugu, and Bauchi using a structured environmental management audit protocol aligned with the Federal Ministry of Health Healthcare Waste Management Regulations and ISO 14001:2015 principles. Audit evidence was gathered through documentation review, site inspections, and interviews with hospital environmental officers and waste handlers. Results show that healthcare waste management is the environmental aspect with the most widespread and serious deficiencies, with clinical and non-clinical waste mixing observed in six of eight hospitals and inadequate autoclave operation in four. Water quality management is most developed, reflecting its connection to infection control programmes. Energy management is absent as a formal management activity in all assessed hospitals, despite energy costs constituting a significant portion of hospital running costs. Environmental management responsibility is assigned to a designated officer in only three hospitals. Recommendations include mandatory healthcare environmental management training for all hospital facilities managers and a national healthcare environmental performance reporting standard. Keywords: environmental management system, hospital, healthcare waste, public health, environmental management.