Project Work : Team Dijklander Ziekenhuis - "SDGs in the Healthcare Sector"

Hello!

We are Team Dijklander Ziekenhuis. It is only week two of our SDG Traineeship, but we have already made valuable progress that we would like to share. This week it was time for a training on professional skills, and for the first meeting with our client: Het Dijklander Ziekenhuis. The training gave us some tips that we later used in the meeting, for instance to summarize what another person has said, and to email the client a short recap on any agreements that were made. The meeting with our client went very well. Our contact person was just as enthusiastic as we all are, and he was very open and understanding about our position as trainees. During the meeting we asked additional questions necessary to outline our assignment, and we agreed on a rough planning for the coming weeks. 

The Project

Het Dijklander Ziekenhuis is a hospital with two locations, one in Purmerend and one in Hoorn. Like many organizations in the healthcare sector, they have signed the Green Deal for Healthcare, but they believe this deal alone is not enough. Their hope is that the healthcare sector will base its’ practices on the Sustainable Development Goals, because these stretch further than looking at energy and waste. By implementing business practices that meet the SDG’s, hospitals do not just minimize their negative impact, but also create a positive impact on society that goes beyond treating patients. Therefore, the aim of our project is to link the SDG’s to the practices of the hospital. 

What Is Next?

Since we are only just beginning, the coming weeks will be spent reading and analyzing documents of what is already being done in the healthcare sector broadly, as well as hospitals specifically. From there, we hope to identify which SDG’s are already implicitly present in the sustainability strategy, and which SDG’s can be added. We also plan to visit the hospital and to talk to employees, because eventually they will be the ones who will carry out the transition. 

For now, this was it. Hopefully in a few months we can share with you a framework on how hospitals can implement the SDG’s!