1 December 2024, Aden and Sana’a, Yemen – Hospitals provide life-saving medical care to people suffering from severe illness, injuries, complications from chronic diseases and other critical medical conditions. In Yemen, when people need health care, they often turn first to their nearest hospital.
Since the start of Yemen’s protracted crisis, WHO and the country’s health authorities, in partnership with the World Bank, have helped prevent the collapse of more than 100 hospitals.
WHO’s support provides essential resources like medicines, equipment, and fuel, directly benefiting hospitals and mitigating frequent power cuts.
Each year, the support benefits millions of Yemenis. Between November 2023 and June 2024, over 3.9 million people received health care at supported hospitals: 1.1 million people were treated in emergency rooms, 324 000 received inpatient care and 206 000 surgeries, 93 000 deliveries and 38 000 caesarean sections were performed.
WHO support in 2024 has included the procurement of US$ 7 million of essential commodities, including insulin and other diabetic and cardiovascular medicines, intravenous fluids to treat infections, including cholera, and diagnostic laboratory kits. The Organization also distributed 66 374 cylinders of oxygen to 37 facilities and 3.7 million litres of fuel to 143 facilities. Supplies are distributed on a needs basis, determined in collaboration with health authorities and facilities.
WHO Representative to Yemen Dr Arturo Pesigan explained the impact of WHO’s partnership with the World Bank: “These essential investments not only save lives but stabilize Yemen’s entire health infrastructure amidst a prolonged crisis, ensuring essential services reach those in need. Without these resources, the system would be at risk of collapse”.
In recent years, in accordance with the humanitarian-peace-development nexus approach, WHO has complemented its provision of life-saving support with efforts to improve the quality of care in supported facilities and strategic action to guide future investments.
In collaboration with WHO and the Ministry of Public Health and Population, 7 hospitals are engaged in an initiative to strengthen their resilience to climate change. The initiative focuses on developing hospitals that are safer, greener and more capable of responding to emergencies. WHO plans to expand the pilot initiative to more hospitals, improving emergency preparedness, operational efficiency and health system resilience.
In 2022, WHO worked with the Ministry of Public Health and Population to endorse a national quality indicator tool. Collaboration was subsequently ramped-up to establish quality committees in hospitals charged with assessing facility adherence to the standards and developing and implementing improvement plans. With efforts leading to endorsing the national quality of care strategy on 22 September 2024.
WHO has played a crucial role in strengthening the skills of health workers through targeted capacity-building initiatives. In addition to clinical and technical training, WHO has focused on often overlooked areas such as human resources, finance and hospital management in order to ensure that facilities are equipped to effectively manage everyday health services and respond to emergencies.
WHO guided the development of Yemen’s first-ever hospital sector profile and in 2024 initiated work on the country’s first hospital sector strategy. This strategic approach aims to improve planning and implementation of people-centred hospitals, improve preparedness and response to emergencies and support monitoring and evaluation of hospital sector performance.
To improve the management of medical equipment provided to supported facilities, WHO is working with the Ministry of Public Health and Population to pilot an inventory management system. Already operating in 5 hospitals, the system records details such as the quantity, condition, location and maintenance status of each medical device in the facility. The project will contribute to optimizing the procurement, use and maintenance of medical equipment, improve operational efficiency and enhance patient safety.
Looking ahead, WHO support to hospitals is expected to continue with World Bank funding, and efforts are underway to mobilize additional domestic and international resources. Such investments are crucial to provide services, save lives and improve the well-being of millions of vulnerable Yemenis.
Note:
WHO and the World Bank have partnered on 4 life-saving projects in Yemen since 2017: the Emergency Health and Nutrition Project, 2017–2022; the Yemen COVID-19 Response Project, 2020–2022; the Emergency Human Capital Project, 2021–2025 and the Pandemic Preparedness and Response Project, 2023–2026 (funded from the Pandemic Fund).
