Inspiring Green and Clean Practices in Thailand

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GGHH Asia Coordinator, Faye Ferrer (6th from the left in red), visits Buayai Hospital in Nakhon Rachasima “Korat” Province

Health Care Without Harm Asia visited three hospitals in the Northeastern part of Thailand together with the GREEN and CLEAN hospitals program of the Department of Health of the Ministry of Health Thailand.

The GREEN and CLEAN hospitals program with 746 hospitals and 3,099 sub-district hospital members is an active member of the Global Green and Healthy Hospitals Network in Thailand.

Hospitals visited were Phimai Hospital and Buayai Hospital from Nakhon Rachasima “Korat” Province and Namphong Hospital in Khon Kaen Province. All three hospitals were able to showcase their good practices on wastewater management, organic food production, biogas for food waste and vermi (worm) composting.

Phimai Hospital is a 90-bed hospital from the NakornChaiBuRin Region of Nakhon Rachasima Province, were able to demonstrate their recycling efforts on paper wastes and food wastes that are turned into organic fertilizers. These fertilizers are then distributed to the hospital personnel for their organic gardens.

Phimai Hospital

Hospital Director, Dr. Wichai Asawapark of Namphong Hospital was able to encourage the personnel of the 60-bed hospital to be stakeholders to all the green efforts of the hospital. From waste recycling to waste reduction, this hospital is an example of how good leadership can turn a health care facility and it’s employees to become stewards for a healthier and greener environment.

Good practices like treating over 180 cubic meters per day of waste water and a significant reduction from 16 tanks of LPG to eight due to its biogas use, Buayai Hospital shows the way for how most hospitals could maximize their wastes and turn it into resource. The 120-bed hospital is built in a 11 hectare land that makes it ideal for them to work on different green initiatives and at the same time earn some money from it.

The good practices showed by the three hospitals are just a start of GGHH’s efforts in documenting and developing case studies for hospitals in Thailand. Case Studies are being developed and are published in GGHH’s website (www.greenhospitals.org) where health care facilities and other stakeholders could download and model the examples on their own facilities.

Health Care Without Harm Asia hopes to assist more hospital members of GREEN and CLEAN program in documenting their best practices to turn into case studies for other hospitals and stakeholders to model in their own facilities.

Faye V. Ferrer, Green Hospitals Campaigner, coordinates the Global Green and Healthy Hospitals Campaign in the region. For seven years, she led the Safer Chemicals Campaign in Asia. She also led the first Southeast Asian Mercury-Free Health Care Conference held in the Philippines in 2006. She was responsible for the documentation of the 2004 Philippine Measles Elimination Campaign. The documentation proved that a nationwide vaccination program is possible without resorting to incineration of immunization waste.