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Fruits
of our labour - Caring for our environment is just another
way to improve patient care.
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Green
innovations were implemented to solve real problems at the
hospital. Patients are often worried and frightened when
they come to a hospital. By beautifying the hospital with
lots of plants and trees, they could rest in a more serene
environment. Similarly, planting hydro-ponics on the rooftop
not only provide food for the patients, but more importantly,
it absorbs the heat from the roof, cooling the wards facing
it. By constantly using these environmentally friendly ideas
to solve hospital-wide problems, the hospital was awarded
the Singapore Environmental Achievement Award by the Singapore
Environmental Council on 3 June 1999.
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Staff at Changi
General Hospital are passionate about being green as they understand
that it can contribute towards patient care. From recycling to
gardening and conserving energy, many devoted their time and effort
including evenings and Sundays to create a "green" hospital.
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Senior
Operations Executive, Mr Faisal Bushfield, who first knew
little about environment management and hydroponics, is
now the hospital's authority on these topics. He said enthusiastically
: "When I was first involved in the ISO 14001 certification,
I started to read up about these topics in the weekend,
so that we can come up with innovative ways of making the
hospital an environmentally friendly place." Others like
Senior Social Worker, Mrs Anne Ooi has been involved in
the hospital's landscaping and often come back on weekends
to tend to the boungainvillea plants.
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Staff
at Changi General Hospital are passionate about being
green as they can understand that it can contribute
towards patient care. From recycling to gardening
and conserving energy, many devoted their time and
effort including evenings and Sundays to create a
"green" hospital.
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Senior
Medical Social Worker, Anne Ooi mobilised staff to do some
gardening in the old Toa Payoh Hospital in 1993 when the
hospital surroundings was drab.
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As a
result of staff's enthusiasm and teamwork, the hospital
planted 40 rows of hydroponic plants in 1998, and harvested
more than 190 kg of cherry tomatoes. 1,300 plants and trees
were also planted by staff during the monthly gardening
sessions last year. Using the compost heap that is cultivated
through kitchen vegetable waste and horticultural clippings,
we have been able to enrich the soil, creating excellent
mulch for flowerbeds, trees and shrubs. Furthermore, through
simple innovations, the hospital has reduced energy and
water consumption, saving more than $800,000 a year. In
benchmarking ourselves against the world environment standard,
we were certified ISO 14001 in 1998.
There
is a saying in the Changi General Hospital, "We are in the
business of caring. Caring for our patient, our community
and our environment."
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