ADB approves $100m to improve KP health sector
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $100 million loan to improve the quality of secondary health care in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the lender said in a statement on Thursday. The programme will improve the delivery of health services at secondary hospitals by modernising infrastructure and equipment, ensuring implementation of clinical protocols, standards and guidelines and improving human resources planning and medicine supply chain management, the ADB said. “While the coronavirus placed an enormous strain on essential health services in [KP] 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. The programme will contribute towards improving the quality of secondary hospital services in KP and also help people injured by the floods and support efforts to control the spread of infectious diseases, Mr Zhukov added. Outlining the challenges faced by the KP’s health sector, the statement added that outdated secondary health care facilities, equipment and inadequate quality assurance standards and processes plague the system.