Regional States Urged to Raise Budgets for Health Sector

Addis Ababa  May 10/2019 Ministry of Health has called on regional states to raise the low budget they have been allocating for the sector today.

Health Minister Amir Aman told journalists that the highest budget allocated by the regional states this Ethiopian fiscal year was 13 percent and the lowest 5 percent.

This is not enough to finance the health sector in the respective regions, the minister stressed, further urging the regional state to raise the budget which is crucial for the wellbeing of  citizens.

Discussing shortage of medicines across the country, Amir  pointed out that this is partly due to the failure of hospitals and clinics to allocate enough budget.

“Some health institutions allocate only 10,000 Birr, which cannot even cover the expense of over one month medicine,” he revealed.

The minister also briefed journalists on the progress of the health sector in the country, particularly with respect to the number of health professionals, hospitals and clinics in the past decade.

The number of nurses has grown from 16,000 to 59,000, midwives from 1,300 to 16,000, and   medical doctors from 2000 to 9,182 during the stated period.

Despite the progress, Amir said a lot remains to be done to meet the demand of the public.

According to the standard set by WHO for developing countries, the minimum account of medical doctors, nurse and midwives together is 4.4 per 1000 persons.

However, the proportion of Ethiopia is 0.8 per 1,000 persons, according to Amir. He, therefore, urged regional states and woredas to allocate adequate budget to address the gap