May 25, 2019
Darling Downs Health – the authority responsible for all South Burnett public hospitals – says it is taking action to address the potential impacts of climate change.
Chief executive Dr Peter Gillies said work already completed was a good first step towards sustainability.
“With more and more people accessing our facilities, we need to make sure we are finding opportunities to be more sustainable,” Dr Gillies said.
Measures introduced at Toowoomba Hospital include cardboard recycling, the replacement of single-use plastic disposables with reusable items for the CT scanner and banning single-use cups.
South Burnett hospitals have been included in the push for sustainability.
“Kingaroy Hospital was experiencing water run off that was causing erosion around the buildings,” Dr Gillies said.
“To address this issue, we installed seven holding tanks with a total storage capacity of 472,179 litres of rainwater.
“This captured stormwater is used to feed the onsite Renal Reverse Osmosis plant for renal dialysis and in the Central Sterilising Department which saves on water costs at the facility.
“We also have solar panels installed at the Murgon Hospital with the support of Ergon Energy.
“Ergon Energy installed almost 100 280W solar panels on the hospital’s roof, so we are now able to offset our energy use at the hospital by generating solar power.
“The solar panels are estimated to reduce the hospital’s monthly energy bill by around 23 per cent.
“The extra power is also contributed back to the grid.”
Does this mean the new Kingaroy hospital will have solar when finished? I am sure the state government would not miss out on this fantastic opportunity would they?