Authors (including presenting author) :
WONG CYM (1), WONG LPK(1), LAW JSL(2), LO WY(2), LUK CSY(3), WONG PCP(3)
Affiliation :
(1) Catering Service, Kowloon Hospital, The Hospital Authority
(2) Facilities Management, Kowloon Hospital, The Hospital Authority
(3) Supporting Service, Kowloon Hospital, The Hospital Authority
Introduction :
The Patient Catering Services has been providing meals for ~1,400 patients in Kowloon Hospital (KH), Hong Kong Eye Hospital (HKEH) and Hong Kong Buddhist Hospital (HKBH) in hot-plating operation from breakfast to dinner on a daily basis.
With an aim to better contribute to the environment, KH has joined the Pilot Scheme on food waste collection launched by the EPD to transform the food waste into energy and compost as a by-product at O-Park1. For this, the food waste returned from wards would be collected in the Food Waste Bins (FWB) after each meal and delivered to Refuse Collection Room (downstair of the kitchen) for pick-up and delivery to the O-Park1. Similarly, empty FWB provided by the EPD would be picked up by kitchen staff for the use after next meal. As a result, the bins have to be transported between the kitchen and the downstair Refuse Collection Room for 3 meals per day. For safe manual handling and delivery of the wet waste, the bins would be filled up to 50-70%, hence, 6-8 bins/trip with 5 round trips would be required per day. Two staff would be involved to deliver back and forth between kitchen and the Refuse Collection Room for each trip.
Since patient meal provision is one of the essential services to patients yet the routine meal schedule is tight and vertical transportation is always busy in the hospital, food waste collection is somehow time-consuming and labor intensive in terms of the frequent transportation using elevators and by batch delivery per mealtime. After careful consideration and planning, a modification in the design and use of the Waste Pulping System has been incorporated to enhance the efficiency, OSH and hygiene condition of the process.
Objectives :
To enhance the efficiency and OSH of daily routine in food waste handling while at the same time minimizing the holding of food waste bins in the kitchen area
Methodology :
One set of Pulp Mill and Centrifugal Machine, Food (‘Pulp Mill’) was installed at Dishwashing Area, Main Kitchen (GF) for grinding food waste, and One set of Press, General (‘Press’) was installed downstair at Refuse Collection Room (LGF) for dehydrating the moisture of grinded swill for disposal of patient food waste. Vertical installation of piping network between the ‘Pulp Mill’ and ‘Press’ instead of the horizontal arrangement within the same floor level allow the bypass of the manual transportation of Food Waste Bins between the kitchen and Refuse Collection Room. The related time and tasks could be saved for other operational enhancement.
Result & Outcome :
Upon the incorporation of the modified Waste Pulping System in the new workflow, i.e. from Jun 2024 to Dec 2024, 900 round trips of vertical transportations using elevators have been spared for other users and the related manual handling of the heavy Food Waste Bins has been cut down accordingly. Moreover, those Food Waste Bins from the Refuse Collection Room would no longer be pick-up and placed in kitchen for temporary holding so that soiled waste bins would not enter the kitchen for enhanced environmental hygiene.
With the close collaboration with Facilities Management team for technical support and Supporting Services for space and installation issues, the new workflow runs smoothly and effectively. Such enhancement would also support the efficient and safe operation with the growing demand and aging population for hospital services.
