The United States Agency, which administers civilian foreign aid and development assistance, has inaugurated a health centre constructed for over 40 million Br in the Amhara Regional State.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) inaugurated the health centre in Lemi town, Ensaro wereda, North Shoa zone of the Amhara regional state. Universal Construction Plc, a local company, constructed the clinic which will serve 25,000 people residing in five kebeles of the town.
Universal has been in business for the past four decades engaging in business areas including building construction, concrete waterproofing, elevator installation and maintenance, machinery rental and property assessment and valuation.
Under construction for the past three years, the Clinic was officially inaugurated on May 3, 2018. It is expected to serve 47,000 people in the nearby areas of the town. The new health centre was built on the area where a two-block centre used to reside.
The former centre had been operating with various problems including retrograde medical utilities, deficiency of facilities and challenged with a shortage of water supplies and electricity, according to Gesit Tilahun, head of North Shoa Health Bureau who used to work as a health professional at the centre for eight years.
Over 65 health professionals will be employed to the new Lemi Health Centre. Additional medical equipment will be fulfilled by the regional state as of June 30, 2010, according to Girma Yeshitila, North Shoa administrator.
Residents of the surrounding areas will have better access to essential health services, including immunizations for children, safe childbirth and HIV care and treatment services, reads a press release from the Embassy of the United States in Addis Abeba.
The new health centre is an addition to Ensaro, which used to have three centres. It has had nine blocks and 56 rooms designated to inpatient department, minor operation room, pre and postnatal departments. It also has a designated separated block intended for treating patients with communicable diseases such as Tuberculosis (TB).
So far USAID has built 22 health centres, 10 pharmaceutical storage warehouses, and has renovated an additional 10 existing health facilities in Ethiopia under the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Initiative. It is also supporting the building of the national blood bank which began in 2016 and is expected to be completed and handed over to the Ministry of Health in the coming months.
Ethiopia is progressing well in the health sector, and USAID is assisting with that, according to Leslie Reed, USAID’s Mission Director.
Currently, Ethiopia has 3,400 health centres up from 520 a decade ago.
“Ethiopia reduced maternal death by half and child death by two thirds,” said Reed. “The number of people living with HIV has declined as well.”
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