Khyber Pakhtunkhwa now has a better secondary healthcare system thanks to a $100 million results-based loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
According to a press release obtained by ADB on Thursday, the program will help improve the delivery of health services at secondary hospitals by modernizing the facility’s hardware and software, ensuring that clinical protocols, standards, and guidelines are followed, and enhancing human resource management and the management of the supply chain for medicines.
“While the coronavirus placed an enormous strain on essential health services in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and across the country, Pakistan now faces unprecedented flooding exacerbating the risk of waterborne diseases,” said ADB Director General for Central and West Asia Yevgeniy Zhukov.
Despite being planned before the monsoon, this program will play a significant role in raising the standard of secondary hospital care in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In addition, Zhukov said, it will aid those who were hurt physically by the floods and support efforts to stop the spread of infectious diseases.
The statement claims that the health sector in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa suffers considerable obstacles, such as outdated secondary healthcare facilities and equipment and insufficient quality assurance standards and procedures.
The infant and maternal mortality rates in the province are also high, with 53 per 1,000 live births and 165 per 100,000, respectively.
“ADB’s assistance will help sustain health reforms started by the provincial government and strengthen the resilience of the health systems to future pandemics,” said ADB Senior Health Specialist for Central and West Asia Hiddo Huitzing.
“It will benefit an estimated 38 million people, including women in need of maternal healthcare services, and will also create jobs in the health sector,” Huitzing added.
Since 1966, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has provided Pakistan with over $37 billion in loans, grants, and other funding options to support equitable economic growth and enhance the nation’s infrastructure, energy and food security, transportation networks, and social services.
ADB is putting up a sizable response package in response to the floods to help people, livelihoods, and infrastructure both now and in the future.
A $3 million grant has already been granted by the bank to pay for the immediate purchase of aid materials like food and tents. A separate countercyclical package is also being processed by ADB to assist Pakistan in absorbing the effects of outside shocks.
