By Ngor Deng Matem
Health Pooled Fund (HPF) is pacing out its healthcare services’ delivery in Aweil main Referral Hospital by the end of this July due to funding shortfall, the Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) has announced as it appealed for more funding to the project.
The Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) has called on the donor countries funding the Health Pooled Fund-HPF to re-prioritize humanitarian assistance for South Sudan.
According to the statement MSF posted on its official Facebook three days ago, the HPF project will end its services in Aweil hospital at the end of July 2022 due to funding shortfall.
“This April, the HPF had its budget slashed by a projected 24% for this fiscal year due to the recent drastic cuts to the UK’s Official Development Assistance. As the largest medical-humanitarian organisation working in South Sudan, MSF is alarmed by the scale and timing of these cuts to the national public healthcare system. These cuts will have life or death implications for women, men and children across the country. MSF has been running the hospital’s paediatric and maternity departments since 2008, with adult healthcare services being supported by the country’s Health Pooled Fund. It is the only hospital for a population of more than 100,000 in Aweil town and over 1.2 million people in the whole state. Unfortunately, this essential health facility will lose its Health Pooled Funding at the end of July,” MSF’s statement read.
“The Health Pooled Fund (HPF) is the largest donor-financing mechanism for healthcare in South Sudan. The funding provides access to basic primary healthcare and some secondary healthcare, and includes payments for local healthcare workers, drugs and medical supplies, as well as technical assistance,” statement added.
MSF also urged the Donors to urgently step in with sufficient additional funding to mitigate the gaps resulting from these latest cuts.
Two months ago, Northern Bahr El-Ghazal state ministry of health announced the reduction of HPF Support to over 20 public health facilities within the state.