Research at Caithness General hospital wins national award for north university and NHS Highland
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GROUND-breaking research, undertaken at Caithness General hospital, has won a national award for the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) and NHS Highland.
Staff from NHS Highland and UHI's Environmental Research Institute worked together to investigate methods to lower pharmaceutical pollution in hospital wastewater while increasing water efficiency at the Wick hospital.
Their work won the Making an Environmental Difference category at the seventh Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards. The awards celebrate exceptional work achieved through partnerships between academics and businesses or third sector organisations. The collaboration also received the internationally recognised Alliance for Water Stewardship accreditation, the first time this has been awarded to a hospital.
Professor Sharon Pfleger, consultant in pharmaceutical public health at NHS Highland, said: "Water is essential for good health and never more so than during a pandemic when we are urged to keep washing our hands. We are very lucky to have water at the end of the tap but two billion people across the world aren’t so lucky. So we all have a social responsibility to be good stewards of our water and ensure it is there for generations to come. It takes partnership working to really make a difference and we are delighted to be working with colleagues in UHI’s Environmental Research Institute and our wider partners in the One Health Breakthrough Partnership to maximise the NHS contribution. We are proud to collect this award with them and are striving to do more in the years to come."
The collaboration is supported by the Knowledge Exchange ‘WaterHub’. This aims to help address challenges in drinking water provision, wastewater treatment and resource management in rural and sparsely populated regions of Scotland, and in similar regions elsewhere in Europe and around the world. It draws on expertise from university locations around the Highlands and Islands. The new UHI WaterHub Strategy was launched on World Water Day on March 22.
WaterHub is chaired by Professor Stuart Gibb, director of the Environmental Research Institute at UHI North Highland.
He said: "Water is of central importance to the economy of Scotland. Resources are critical to key sectors including, agriculture, food and drink, tourism, energy and healthcare. This collaboration with NHS Highland and our One Health Breakthrough Partners has attracted national and international interest and we are thrilled to receive this award and the recognition it brings."
