The Diplomat
The Spanish Cooperation has increased by five million euros its budget for the Program to Strengthen the Public Hospital Network in Honduras, in addition to the 70 million already planned to ensure the objectives of construction and equipment of future hospitals in Santa Barbara, Ocotepeque and Salamá.
The budget increase has been possible thanks to the allocation of an additional credit of five million Euros, as informed yesterday by the Spanish Ambassador to Honduras, Diego Nuño García, within the framework of a mission of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation for Development (AECID) to analyze the development of the program.
This credit, with very favorable conditions, is in addition to the 70 million euros previously allocated by Spain. These new funds ensure compliance with the objectives of improving hospital infrastructure, acquiring the necessary medical equipment and providing strong technical support.
The IDB-AECID mission, which will last three days, will work closely with the Honduran authorities and their technical teams to analyze the final technical agreements, terms and schedule of the environmental and social aspects of the operation.
The general objective of the Program to Strengthen the Public Hospital Network is to improve access to and effective coverage of hospital services in Honduras in order to reduce the burden of preventable deaths among mothers and children, from external injuries and from complications of non-communicable diseases.
To this end, it provides for actions aimed at building hospital structures, acquiring modern medical equipment, training health personnel, strengthening hospital management and improving health information systems.
This operation to strengthen Honduras’ hospital network is co-financed by Spain in parallel with the Inter-American Development Bank. Spain will fully finance the Santa Barbara, Ocotepeque and Salama hospitals and the IDB and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will co-finance the two trauma hospitals in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. The total number of beneficiaries of the Program as a whole amounts to more than four million Hondurans.
