Representatives from the Department of Medical Services of the Ministry of Health in Bhutan attended a four-day training on hospital waste water treatment at the Maria Reyna-Xavier University Hospital in Cagayan de Oro City and at Our Lady of Peace Hospital in Paranaque City. Both hospitals are under the St. Paul of Chartres Philippines Health Care Ministry, a member of the Global Green and Healthy Hospitals (GGHH).
Held from October 20-24, the training provided the engineers awareness of proper waste water treatment in hospitals and how crucial it is to prevent the spread of infectious diseases caused by inappropriate handling of hospital waste. Microorganisms present in health-care waste are potentially harmful to medical practitioners, hospital patients, the general public, as well as the environment.
Engineers Ugyen Tenzin and Jampel Dorji recognize the need to develop the infrastructure that will address the concern on waste management because hospitals in Bhutan lack the proper facility.
“As engineers, we want to know the processes and how careful we should be in dealing with waste,” according to Tenzin. “Designing is not so much of a challenge, but the disposal of wastes will be,” he added.
Health Care Without Harm-Asia (HCWH-Asia) has been working towards the transformation of the global health care sector. One of the organization’s major programs is the Global Green and Healthy Hospitals committed to promoting environmental and public health, and more importantly to reducing the ecological footprint of health care operations. GGHH is a community of hospitals, organizations and health care systems with a global reach. The Department of Medical Services under the Ministry of Health Bhutan is a member of GGHH.
The training is the second wave for 2014 as part of HCWH-Asia’s efforts to work with key people to help achieve the goals of GGHH.
“We learned so much. It is a new concept for us. We will take what we learned here and implement them in our hospitals. We’ve really taken a lot here,” says Dorji.
Resource speakers for the training included architect GB Dumaog; Sheila Yap, infection control nurse; Josephine Rangas, pollution control officer; and engineer Jed Baraquiel for the Paranaque training.
Hospitals, health care ministries, health organizations and health care facilities interested to join GGHH may get in touch with Faye Ferrer, GGHH Coordinator, at faye@no-harm.org
From left: Shiela Yap, infection control nurse, architect GB Dumaog, engineer Jampel Dorji, Sr. Corazon Hilaro, SPC, and engineer Ugyen Tenzin