Safe and green: smart health facilities
Smart hospitals are strategically built to resist disaster events and provide services under emergency conditions, using resources more efficiently and reducing environmental footprint
The Smart Hospitals project is one of PAHO’s largest partnership initiative, together with the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), which leads the country’s work to tackle global challenges including poverty and disease.
Piloted in 2012 in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and St. Kitts and Nevis, the project was then extended to 7 English-speaking Caribbean countries. Running from 2015 to 2022, the project will be instrumental in retrofitting at least 50 smart health facilities in Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Lucia and Saint Vincent and The Grenadines
With more than 67% of hospitals in the Caribbean and Latin America located in areas of high-risk disaster areas, this partnership between PAHO and FCDO is providing safer, greener health facilities to deliver care in disasters, generate operational savings and reduce disaster losses in the Caribbean.
A genuine partnership
On top of the £43 million invested through UK Aid, FCDO takes collaboration to the next level by helping mobilize additional donors, visiting countries regularly and taking part in relevant decisions and discussions.
PAHO and FCDO joint work, in coordination with the Ministries of Health in the selected countries, resulted in a thriving partnership that has echoed around the globe. The concept developed into a general gold standard, recognized by external auditors and key global institutions.
The Smart Hospitals model is also being replicated to different types of facilities, such as emergency shelters, to different sectors, such as education, and to other regions, such as the Fiji Islands and other Small Island States.
With this project, the FCDO contributes to substantial inputs to the region, being acknowledged for holding hands with PAHO in the direction of a high-impact initiative that is already improving the lives of many in the Caribbean.
