HEALTH CARE WITHOUT HARM AND NURSES ALL OVER THE WORLD PARTNER FOR AN ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH CARE

May 11, 2009

HEALTH CARE WITHOUT HARM AND NURSES ALL OVER THE WORLD PARTNER FOR AN ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH CARE

In celebration of the International Nurses Day, Health Care Without Harm and nurses all over the world partner to create a cleaner, healthier and more environment-friendly health care system.

In the Philippines, HCWH-Southeast Asia and the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) signed a memorandum of understanding detailing the work to phase-out mercury in the health care setting.

According to Merci Ferrer, Executive Director of HCWH-SEA, “for so many years in the history of HCWH, the nurses have always been in the forefront of environmental health campaigns. Nurses are first to demand for occupational safety practices in the hospitals and also the first to ask that mercury devices be phased-out.”

“We are glad that in the Philippines, it is not just individual nurses who are taking the lead for change but the nurses as a collective, as an organization,” she added.

As part of the MOU, PNA will join the Mercury Free Health Care Global Partnership led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and HCWH. This partnership aims to substitute mercury-based medical devices with safer, accurate and affordable by 2017.

“The mercury phase-out is no issue,” said PNA President Tita Barcelo. “We have Administrative Order 21 which mandates the phasing-out of all mercury-containing devices in all hospitals by 2010 here in the Philippines. The PNA definitely support a global phase-out. This is for the welfare of the patients who visit the hospitals and the nurses and other health workers who spend 40 hours a week on duty.”

PNA’s support to global mercury phase-out does not stop with the MOU. They likewise aim for a virtual elimination of mercury-based thermometers and sphygmomanometers over the next decade, substituting these items with accurate, economically viable alternatives and enjoining all PNA members, chapters and affiliates in the country to help promote the advocacy to eliminate mercury in health care. PNA is also supporting the call for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to provide an intermediate storage area for phased-out mercury devices from hospitals.

“As for all items that are to be phased-out, there must be a corresponding storage area. Thus, we are urging the DENR to be dutiful enough and provide a temporary storage,” Barcelo added.

HCWH-SEA, on the other hand will organize mercury-free health care information and education programs to be disseminated to PNA regional offices; national and local activities for nurses on the promotion of mercury-free health care devices; and promote through its website and the national media the various activities done by the PNA and the partnership.

“This is what partnership entails. Each has its own duty. You excel in the work assigned to you. You share resources. And when it’s harvest time, all the members reap the benefits,” said Ferrer.

“In this case, it is not just the Philippine nurses and hospitals who will benefit but nurses, health care workers and practically every human all over the world.

PNA has a membership of over 105,000.

Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) is a global coalition of more than 400 organizations in more than 50 countries working to protect health by reducing pollution in health care sector. For more information, visit www.noharm.org. (30)

For other HCWH-nurses partnership projects, visit
http://noharm.org/globalsoutheng/pressroom/latestNews.cfm

Contact
Sonia G. Astudillo, Communications Officer, +63 918 9182369, sonia@hcwh.org
Faye Ferrer, Program Coordinator for Mercury, +63 920 9327151, faye@hcwh.org