Health ministry secretary of state York Sambath (front right) meets with Aparnaa Somanathanm of the World Bank on September 12. BTV
Cambodia will officially announce the implementation of the Health Equity and Quality Improvement Project (H-EQIP) Phase II in early October after senior Ministry of Health officials and representatives from the World Bank’s (WB) East Asia and Pacific region team met on September 12.
The meeting was between ministry secretary of state York Sambath and Aparnaa Somanathanm, the Practice Manager for WB’s Health, Nutrition and Population for East Asia and the Pacific. Also in attendance were managers of H-EQIP Phase II, Covid-19 Emergency Response Preparedness (ERP) and Cambodia Nutrition Projects (CNP).
The ministry said in a press release that the discussion focused on the nutrition and population portfolio and updates on the projects.
“[Actually] we have been implementing H-EQIP’s second phase after putting an end to H-EQIP Phase I, but we will make an official announcement in October,” it said.
It continued that H-EQIP was meant to ensure and increase efficiency, quality and safety in providing health services to people. The project has a large budget for implementation, with funding from a Cambodian government budget package, foreign aid donations and a concession credit project.
During the discussion, Sambath praised Somanathanm and WB for coordinating with its partners to carry out H-EQIP in Cambodia.
She said the implementation of H-EQIP Phase I had made great progress and Cambodia will endeavour to continue to cooperate with them on this project.
Somanathan complimented the ministry’s leadership as well as the technical team and all project implementers for their successful cooperation with development partners and WB in carrying out the aforementioned projects.
The ministry previously announced that H-EQIP’s Phase II will last for five years from July 7 of this year. The project will involve medical check-up services and non-communicable disease treatments across the country, with a main focus on medical check-up services and inflammation treatment or treatment of cervical pre‐cancer. The new project will be expanded to 60 referral hospitals and 500 health centres across the country.
