The UAE Ministry of Health launched a new initiative as part of its excellence program under the title “Ministry of Health Friendly Environment Organization” in implementation of the adopted program of the UAE to maintain a healthy environment as one of the main goals of the federal government.
The Ministry issued a circular to the department directors, medical districts, hospitals and health centers to set up a mechanism for applying the initiative and form a team member to implement the assigned tasks and goals.
Dr. Salem Al Darmaki, Acting Director General, explained that the directors have been assigned to prepare a monthly report about the initiative’s implemented steps to be handed over to the institutional excellence department in the ministry for discussion and approval.
He said: “A regular evaluation for the ministry’s health facilities all over the UAE will be done to review their implementation to the initiative. An award carrying the name of “Minister of Health Environment Award” will be granted to the best health facility that implemented the initiative”.
Al Darmaki mentioned that the initiative comes in implementation to the ministry’s vision in maintaining healthy individuals living in a supporting and sustaining healthy conscious and caring society.
Furthermore, he explained that the ministry’s launches this initiative taking in consideration a number of surrounding circumstances such as maintaining the natural resources such as water and energy as well as a healthy environment for the employees.
“The ministry will concentrate on the initiatives that can be currently implemented to achieve the requested goals pointing out that the ministry depends on reserving natural resources through the consumption of electricity and energy. The ministry coordinated with Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) to check, measure and analyze the flow of energy and define the consumption through work performance”, he elaborated Al Darmaki emphasized that several individual initiatives and procedures can be done through maintaining the usage of electricity and energy in the ministry’s locations such as decreasing the numbers of lights inside the office, depending on the solar system rather than electricity bulbs and replacing them with saving energy bulbs.
“The procedures also include raising the awareness of thermal scholarship and air pollution particularly cars exhaust in cooperation with the Department of Traffic to apply immediate violations for vehicles that have exhaust. Similarly, safety and security conditions must be followed up in buildings under construction reassuring that chemical products such as paints must include harmless materials for the individuals and the environment”, he added.
Meanwhile, Dr. Hessa Al Masood, Institutional Excellence Department at the Ministry of Health, explained that there is a current trend called green computerization which enables the information technology department at the ministry to promote the understandings and necessity of going green as well as reducing the consumption of energy from computers in addition and their usage in a healthy way as well as recycling computers correctly. The initiative also includes handling water correctly and the wise usage of water to create a healthy environment organization as well as providing green landscapes to plant different trees, recycling and disposal of materials in cooperation with specialized companies.
“Our main purpose of this initiative to create a human resources members who are supportive to the environment hoping that we achieve its goals through printing several educational brochures, organizing several training awareness programs and other materials to be distributed to all the members of the society”, she concluded.
WAM