Vincy Tribhuvan is the Chief Nursing Officer at Mumbai’s Jupiter Hospital. In 2019, she was one of 24 participants who participated in the National Green Hospital Standards` (NGHS), workshop which introduced a guidance document to help health care institutions reduce their impact on the environment.
There she met India`s Sustainable Health in Procurement Project (SHiPP) team, which had contributed to the development of criteria for the NGHS sustainable procurement document. During the workshop, Vincy was familiarised with the different sustainability methodologies and actions health systems can adopt to reduce their environmental impact.
When she returned to her workplace, she was determined to bring Jupiter Hospital to the next level in order to apply for NGHS accreditation. She worked with nurses and midwives to promote the implementation of standards and advocated for the replacement of PVC gloves with nitrile alternatives.
The first assessor training was conducted on September 7, 2019, at the Public Health Foundation of India, Delhi.
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The nurses worked with hospital staff to implement energy conservation strategies to introduce a robust heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system designed by the Building Energy Efficiency Project (BEEP).
As part of these efforts, the hospital introduced waste minimisation techniques, including Zero Liquid Discharge, a treatment process designed to remove all liquid waste from a system, as well as from rainwater harvesting systems. These sustainability efforts resulted in cost savings of more than $270,000 in a year.
Small efforts can create big differences.
– Vincy Tribhuvan, Chief Nursing Officer, Jupiter Hospital Mumbai
For Vincy, nurses play a vital role in advocating, educating and leading action to mitigate risks associated with climate change.
She looks forward to supporting and increasing the contribution nurses can make to reduce the negative environmental impacts caused by the health care system in which they work.
During the workshop, staff at Mumbai’s Jupiter Hospital familizarised with the NGHS standards and criteria, and are working to implement them and apply for accreditation.
“The National Green Health standards are a great resource for training and educating health workers about climate-smart health care, including environmentally friendly purchasing,” Vincy says. “Nurses play a critical role in the health care sector and in procurement.”
There are 380 beds in Mumbai’s Jupiter Hospital
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