SOSPharmaH

The project "Source Oriented Solutions for Pharma-pollution by Hospitals" aims at reducing the emission of medicines and medicine resistant micro-organisms (e.g. bacteria and viruses) by inpatients and outpatients.
The project brings the concept of Green Pharmacy into practice: a chain approach is pursued where the entire medicine chain (from the developer, prescriber, user, to the water technologist) is involved. Because the hospital is an important link in the medicine chain, it can play an important role in socially responsible use of medicines.
 
During the project, experts from various disciplines and institutions collaborate in order to achieve a broad range of complementary behavioral and technical source oriented measures. Possible measures are assessed for their effectiveness and social acceptance. The activities also aim at increasing the support by the health care sector for a source oriented approach to the problem of pharmaceutical pollution.
 
The SOSPharmaH formula is being developed by Huize Aarde, in collaboration with Utrecht University and University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU). From 2014 a pre-project runs in the hospital under the name "Green Pharmacy". The hospital focuses on awareness raising; the avoidance of wastage of medicinal products; and support to pilots for technical solitions, see their annual report (in Dutch). Huize Aarde is responsible for the awareness sessions. For the UMCU, limiting the spread of medicines and medicine resistant micro-organisms in the environment is a sustainability ambition.
 
See also MEDUWA (MEDicines Unwanted in WAter), en approach in which all concerned actors in a region collaborate in a so called Community of Practice.
Are you interested in this approach? Please contact Huize Aarde.