ISQua EEA was delighted to host our first ISQua EEA webinar of 2026, Focus on Sustainability. We were pleased to be joined on the webinar by two of our client organisations, COHSASA, South Africa and Joint Commission Taiwan (JCT), who presented on the work they are doing to support healthcare providers on their sustainability journeys. COHSASA was joined by their client organisation, Uganda Martyrs’ Hospital, Lubaga, Uganda, and JCT was joined by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), Taiwan.
Jacqui Stewart, CEO of COHSASA in South Africa, introduced their client organisation, Uganda Martyrs’ Hospital in Lubaga, Uganda, represented by Arthur Egulu, who outlined how they have practically addressed and implemented sustainability solutions in their hospital. Jacqui highlighted that while the COHSASA standards have always included Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) requirements, there has been less emphasis on sustainability within the environmental standards. She outlined that the COHSASA standards will be revised in the coming year in line with the ISQua EEA 6th Edition Guidelines and Principles for the Development of Health and Social Care Standards (the Principles), and that going forward, there will be more emphasis on sustainability within the environmental standards. She acknowledged the reality of the challenges faced by African healthcare facilities, including intermittent supply chains, high import costs, foreign exchange rate prohibitions, and environmental conditions such as floods and droughts.
Arthur Egulu, Quality Assurance Manager at Uganda Martyrs Hospital, based in Lubaga, Kampala, Uganda, outlined that sustainability can be overwhelming in resource-constrained countries, so their approach at Uganda Martyrs Hospital was to start with practical, achievable interventions. Arthur provided examples of low-cost, high-impact measures introduced in his hospital, including solar water heaters in all patient units, inverters for operational continuity, on-site waste segregation, water conservation systems, and energy-efficient lighting retrofits. Arthur confirmed that as the hospital moves into its next strategic planning cycle beginning in July 2026, sustainability is being positioned as part of governance and quality improvement, which is indicative of the leadership commitment to these improvement efforts. Joint Commission Taiwan (JCT) introduced the National Healthcare Quality Award system and its recently added category of Net Zero Healthcare, designed to recognise and incentivise healthcare organisations that demonstrate measurable progress towards carbon reduction and climate resilience. For more information on this part of the webinar, please attend the JCT’s session at this year’s ISQua conference in Dublin!
Joint Commission Taiwan was joined by Min-Nan Lin, Deputy Executive Director of the Hospital & Social Welfare Organisation Administration Commission at the Ministry of Health and Welfare in Taiwan. He described the ongoing sustainability-focused efforts in Taiwan’s 26 public hospitals. He outlined how every hospital has now established a Sustainability Committee, which is chaired by a Vice Superintendent of the hospital. A central Sustainability Development Centre has also been established at the Ministry level. By March 2025, the 26 hospitals had completed one hundred per cent of their scope one and scope two carbon inventory, establishing a baseline of approximately 99,000 tons of CO2 equivalent. |Network-wide across the 26 hospitals, more than two and a half million kilowatt hours of electricity have been saved because of the hospitals’ efforts
The Focus on Sustainability webinar discussion highlighted that sustainability is intrinsically linked to patient safety and quality of care. COHSASA’s approach of giving clients three years to adjust to new sustainability standards before they affect accreditation scores demonstrates an understanding of the fact that meaningful change takes time, particularly in resource-limited settings. The examples presented by Uganda Martyrs’ Hospital outline that meaningful change is possible even if organisations are operating in a more resource-constrained environment and don’t have access to a large budget. The collaboration between Joint Commission Taiwan and the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taiwan, highlights how accreditation bodies and national health authorities can work together to drive systemic change. Recognition programmes such as Taiwan’s Net Zero Healthcare category provide a replicable model for motivating hospitals to act.
We are delighted to share the recording of the full Focus on Sustainability webinar with the ISQua EEA network. To listen to the full discussion, you can access the webinar recording here – https://youtu.be/X-aPeI6rsys
