Through a series of projects, URC has been present in Cambodia for 16 years working to improve access to high-quality, affordable health care for Cambodians.
Accomplishments of URC’s most-recent projects in country, the USAID Quality Health Services (QHS) Project and the Social Health Protection (SHP) Project, were recently celebrated at an event in Siem Reap. These projects culminate URC’s legacy of health systems strengthening work in Cambodia.
The accomplishments of the two projects are significant. The QHS Project aimed to improve the quality and availability of key reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health, and nutrition services in public health facilities in nine Cambodian provinces and increase the capacity of operational districts and provincial health departments to support improved quality of care.
QHS succeeded in increasing the number of women receiving at least three post-natal care (PNC) visits in 2014 from 16,676 to 47,241 in 2018 and the number of newborns receiving PNC visits in 2014 from 15,147 to 53,642 in 2018. And URC successfully scaled up the use of non-pneumatic anti-shock garments (the first development partner to do so in Cambodia under the Better Health Services Project) under the QHS project and prevented death due to post-partum hemorrhage 282 times.
The SHP Project sought to continue progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) by supporting expansion of the Health Equity Fund (HEF) system and institutionalization of the Payment Certification Agency (PCA) and other social health protection mechanisms country-wide. The project successfully managed and transitioned invoice certification to the Royal Government of Cambodia and successfully scaled up usage of the Ministry of Health’s electronic health record, the Patient Management and Registration System.
At the event, H.E. Eng Huot, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Health, praised the 16-year contribution of USAID-funded URC-implemented projects to moving the country forward toward UHC.
