Environmental Justice
Action in Southern Africa
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Environmental Justice
Action in Southern Africa |
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PRESS RELEASE –
EMBARGOED FOR 21 OCTOBER 2002 Edendale Hospital worker to attend international health care waste conference in USA
Ms Halimana is the only representative
from Africa who has been selected by the international organisation Health Care
Without Harm (HCWH) to fly to the USA to attend the three day CleanMed 2002
conference, followed by two days of waste management training,
one of which will take place at a Chicago hospital.
HCWH is covering the full cost of her trip. The purpose of the trip is to provide
participants with an understanding of the scope of environmental issues at
health care institutions, how to assess them and how to develop pollution
prevention programmes. “I am very excited at being given the
opportunity to attend the CleanMed 2002 conference in Chicago. I hope to gain as much knowledge regarding health care waste
so as to contribute to improved waste management at Edendale Hospital,” said
Ms Halimana. Ms Halimana, with the support of groundWork
and the entire Edendale Hospital staff, has been instrumental in significantly
improving health care waste management at the Edendale Hospital, while at the
same time reducing the hospital’s monthly expenditure on waste disposal.
These monthly savings have averaged R35 000.
This is a shining light amidst recent press stories about financial
shortages and irregularities in our government hospitals.
Over the past 15 months, groundWork has
been working with the Edendale Hospital and the Ngwelezane Hospital (Empangeni)
to develop model health care waste management programmes, which can be
replicated in other government hospitals. “It is hoped that Ms Halimana will be
able to use the information and knowledge obtained over the next week to assist
both the Edendale hospital and groundWork in identifying ways of
improving health care waste management in South Africa,” said Llewellyn
Leonard, the co-ordinator of groundWork’s Health care Waste and
Incineration Project. For more information contact: Llewellyn Leonard, groundWork’s
Health Care Waste Coordinator on 033-342 5662 Dinky Halimana on 033-395 4690/083 7122
503 Firuzeh Mahmoudi, Health Care Without
Harm, firuzeh@essential.org Or view the CleanMed 2002 web page at www.cleanmed.org.
or the Health Care Without Harm web page at www.no-harm.org |
(Pietermaritzburg, Monday 21 October
2002)