El shabah children hospital is one of the health facilities supported by HEALTH Pooled Fund in South Sudan - credit | Charles Wote/Eye Radio - Nov. 6, 2021

At least eight major hospitals across the country will be affected after the Health Pooled Fund-South Sudan begins to scale down its activities, an official at the ministry of health has said.

The Director of HIV and STIS, Dr. Harriet Akello says the health partner cut-down 30% of its support due to the impact of Covid-19 which affected the resources mobilization.

According to Dr. Harriet, with the decline in the funding, eight major health facilities will be affected.

The charity health organization has already started implementing pulling out support in the country.

Dr. Harriet spoke to Eye Radio during the launch of the guidelines on HIV self-testing in Juba yesterday.

“Currently, because of the impact of Covid-19, they were not able to mobilize sufficient resources so HPF is going to pull out and cut their support by 30% this of course will mean a lot to the country,” Akello told Eye Radio on Thursday.

“Cutting by 30% is actually a reduction of support to about 200 health facilities which are no longer supported so that leaves it a responsibility to us as government to see how we are going to run those health facilities.”

“The HPF used to support eight out of the ten states in South Sudan, so their support was for primary health care services in the country.”

Dr. Harriet says with the funding cut, the government is now mobilizing funds to cover the gap with the new budget.

“Currently, the government is mobilizing funds like I said we have the opportunity of the increased budget to now be allocated to those health facilities which will no longer be supported by HPF,” said Akello.

The Health Pooled Fund is the largest health care program in South Sudan, delivering services in eight out of the ten states.

The program supports nearly 8,000 health workers in 797 public health facilities.

It also supports 25 hospitals, 195 Primary Health Care Centers and 577 Primary Health Care Units.

HPF provides health worker training and incentives, wider support to service delivery at health facilities, and technical assistance.

It’s a multi-donor program led by the United Kingdom’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), with contributions from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Others are; the Canadian Government; the Government of Sweden; Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; and the European Union (EU).