A groundbreaking ceremony for the Islamabad Regional Blood Centre (RBC) took place on May 3rd  in Islamabad with Dr. Tariq Fazal Choudhry, Minister of State for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD), officiating the event. The Islamabad RBC, being built and equipped with €1.6 million of funding support from the German Government through the KFW-German Development Bank, is expected to provide safe blood and blood products to about 2 million people living in Islamabad and surrounding areas

Technical implementation of the three-year KfW-funded and EPOS-implemented Rural Family Planning Project began earlier this year. With a total volume of €7.5 million, the project aims to contribute to improving access of the population, especially the poor and vulnerable groups, to improved demand-oriented, affordable, accessible and acceptable reproductive health services. In Pakistan 25% of married women have an unmet need for family planning.

Stemming from a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative EPOS undertook in 2016 with AWAN - a non-governmental development aid organisation established in 2011 in Yemen and registered with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs – thousands of school-aged children will receive health support services at eight new school clinics opened at the start of this year.  

Technical implementation began last month in Hanoi, Vietnam, for the KfW-funded project ‘Decentralised Health Care Systems Telemedicine Project at Viet Duc Hospital to Provincial Hospitals’. As a pilot project, it is intended to connect 6 hospitals of various levels in Thanh Hoa and Yen Bai Provinces to the Viet Duc University Hospital (VDUH) in Hanoi. With a total value of 8.6m EUR, the project is intended to build upon the experience which VDUH has already gained by virtue of a telemedicine Satellite Programme established in the recent past.

The first ever-safe blood transfusion Regional Blood Centre (RBC) began operating in Hayatabad Peshawar this month. An inaugural ceremony was held on November 9, 2016, with more than 250 people in attendance including heads of education & health departments, health professionals and blood donor organizations. A delegation from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the German Embassy also attended.

EPOS technical assistance teams have been providing training on emergency response, first aid, critical life support and mass casualty trauma in Yemen to respond to the impact the crisis is having health service capacity.

Participants of the emergency response trainings are medical staff of governorate-managed hospitals. Training focuses on urgently responding and managing war-related injuries, as victims require immediate medical care en masse.

Official handover ceremonies for the regional tuberculosis (TB) hospital in Digmoj, Sugd oblast, took place at the end of September.

With funding from the German Government through the German Development Bank KfW and the Tuberculosis Control Programme Phase IV, the regional TB hospital in Digmoj, Sugh oblast was officially handed over by the Tajik President, Mr Emomalii Rahmon. The ceremony was held at Digmoj hospital with officials from the Government, Local Government, Ministry of Health and the hospital administration.

EPOS’ technical assistance support to the EU-funded Angola PASS II project, which aims contribute to improved health conditions of the population, will be extended to May 2019.  To co-ordinate extension planning and recognize project accomplishments to date, EPOS Senior Finance and Contracts Manager Andrea Hahn recently met in Angola with the current project team of experts, project assistants and drivers.

The Cambodian 'Vouchers for Reproductive Health (KfW)' project in collaboration with Department of Preventive Medicine (DPM) organized a roundtable meeting recently with the Cambodian Cervical Cancer Working Group CCWG, doctors and midwives involved in cervical cancer screening (CCS) under the project. An update on national policies and strategies on cervical cancer was provided at the meeting as well as recommendations based on a recent evaluation conducted within the project.

On the occasion of World Tuberculosis (TB) Day 2016, we at EPOS Health Management continue to do our part in the fight against this disease. Recently, we were pleased to assist the TB Control Program of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province (KP) in Pakistan to inaugurate a state-of-the-art Biosafety Level III laboratory at Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar. The laboratory, financed by KfW Development Bank, serves the entire province which is home to 26 million people.

A project closure ceremony for the EU-funded Technical Cooperation Programme to the Ministry of Public Health in Afghanistan took place in Kabul on 7 March 2016. The four-year project provided technical assistance to several departments within the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH)  to enable development of  sound policies, strategies and operational plans and oversee implementation.

Technical implementation began mid-October in Lilongwe, Malawi, for the GIZ-funded project 'Health System Strengthening with a Focus on Reproductive Health'. The 1.2M EUR project is within the framework of GIZ’s technical cooperation programme ‘Health System Strengthening with a Focus on Reproductive Health’ (2012 –2016) and will support the MoH with special emphasis on maternal and neonatal health.

In August 2015, the GIZ-funded Improving Maternal and Newborn Health project in Tanzania was launched. Focusing on the two Regions of Lindi and Mtwara, this 20-month module of the overall Tanzania German Programme to Support Health (TGPSH) aims to make a significant contribution to the improved availability of medical devices for emergency obstetric care and to an increase in the number of health care facilities that provide professional service and maintenance staff for medical equipment.

Initially rooted in collaborative venture among German development professionals and medical faculty of a leading higher education institution, EPOS has grown over the past 30 years to become a leading health management firm working globally to improve the quality and accessibility of health services and systems.

Specialists from the Republican Blood Centre in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, as well as regional health experts and delegates from the Ministry of Health, visited German health institutions and transfusion centres in Frankfurt, Berlin, Potsdam and Dresden at the end of July. 

The study tour was organised as part of the national specialist training program within the KfW-funded HIV/AIDS Prevention Program II (Safe Blood Transfusion) project being implemented by EPOS Health Management.

The project «Technical Assistance to Support the Strengthening of the Health Information System in Tajikistan”, funded by the European Union, jointly with the UNDP “Rule of Law and Access of Justice Programme” conducted a study tour to the Republic of Moldova for the Delegation of 12 specialists from the Civil Registration Offices, Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Tajikistan headed by Mrs. Shahnoza Anvar Nodiri, Deputy Minister of Justice.

A two-day regional workshop on sustainable and green hospital infrastructure was carried out mid-April within the Greening Hospitals – Integrated Infrastructure Competence (GH-IIC) Project which has been implemented by two German consultancy companies, EPOS Health Management GmbH and ETLog Health GmbH. Hospitals have hazardous ecological footprints, due to their operations requiring high consumption of energy and water and generating hazardous healthcare waste. The greening hospital concept strives to reduce the potential negative environmental impacts and to minimize potential risks.

The Afgahn Deputy Minister of Public Health, Dr Abdul Basir Sarwar, and Mr. Andreas Glossner, Political Counsellor at the German Embassy in Kabul, officially opened the newly refurbished and extended Regional Hospital in Kunduz on April 18th, funded by the German government through KfW Development Bank. Prior to the opening ceremony, a tour was held through the new premises.

Kunduz Regional Hospital conducted a full-scale mass casualty drill on April 16th with 250 people taking part. The drill was designed to test how ready and responsive the newly refurbished facilities will be in case of a severe emergency. The findings of the drill will be used to identify room for improvement and shortfalls in protocol and contingency plans for large-scale crisis responses.

The ‘EU Facility Project’ in Vietnam aims to provide flexible and co-ordinated technical assistance to the Ministry of Health (MoH) to achieve targets defined in the EU Health Sector Policy Support Programme 2 (HSPSP2).

Thirty-two Afghan health professionals, including doctors, nurses, administrators and technicians from Northern Afghanistan Hospitals in Kunduz and Takhar as well as officials from the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) in Kabul, participated in a hospital study tour from March 23rd to April 22nd in 2014.

Project launches were held in Malawi at the end of 2013 for two new EPOS-implemented projects: 1) Strengthening of the Malawian Health Management Information System (HMIS) at national and decentralized level (GIZ-funded); and 2) Strengthening of Quality Management (QM) Structures in the Malawian healthcare system with a focus on Reproductive Health (GIZ-funded).

The HMIS project supports the Malawi German Health Programme in the strengthening of evidence-based health information management within the Malawian healthcare system.

EPOS was recently awarded the EU-funded 'Technical Assistance for Health Sector Reform' project in the Philippines, representing one of the largest EU interventions in Health Technical Assistance in Asia. The four year project will launch in November and brings together a strong team of international and local experts in the areas of policy and planning, financing, primary health, HMIS, HRD/HRM, institutional strengthening, essential medicines and pharmaceuticals.

The President of the Republic of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, inaugurated the partly renovated and refurbished central district hospital in Yavan on November 12th.

The National Institute for Transfusion Medicine (NITM) is the major institution in Macedonia responsible for transfusion service and comprises of 3 regional centres and 18 hospital units. The existing variations in the use of blood and blood products between hospitals impose the need for implementing internationally accepted optimal standards defining quality in terms of appropriate use of blood resources.

EPOS commits itself to offering full circle hospital technical assistance, acknowledging the increased importance being accorded to factors such as the role of optimised hygiene in health care facilities, as well as the environmental footprint of health care infrastructures, in the form of ‘green’ hospitals.

Hygiene Management

The EU-funded project Technical Cooperation Programme to the Ministry of Public Health started mid-April in Afghanistan and will run for two years. Implemented by EPOS and Belgian consortium partner AEDES, the overall objective of the project is to strengthen the capacity of the Ministry of Public Health to manage the provision of preventive and curative health services and the development of the Afghan public health system including financial and human resources as well as infrastructure and equipment.

Foundation stone laying ceremonies took place in Peshawar, Pakistan, on September 9th marking the construction start of a EUR 400,000 world-class tuberculosis (TB) biosafety level 3 (BSL 3) laboratory as part of the KfW funded ‘TB Control Programme in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’ project. EPOS is leading the implementation of this project in consortium with GOPA Consultants.

Tuberculosis Control Tajikistan and Pakistan - EPOS continued to support KfW-funded projects with the National Reference Hospital for Tuberculosis in Macheton, Tajikistan and was awarded the Tuberculosis Control Programme IV to support  the rehabilitation of the Regional Reference Hospital for Tuberculosis in Sugd Oblast. In Pakistan, EPOS continued support to the Tuberculosis Control Programme in Kyber Pukhtunkwa. 

Hospital Handover ceremonies took place in Afghanistan for the € 13 million reconstruction and upgrading of the Regional Hospital Mazar-e-Sharif within  the framework of Afghan-German Cooperation to contribute to the peaceful development of Afghanistan.

In Niger, EPOS begins a feasibility study for the funding of a PBF project and in the Republic of the Congo, Brazzaville, EPOS evaluates an initial PBF scheme. These projects highlight the relevance of EPOS’ health financing expertise - which already includes voucher insurance and community based insurance schemes.

http://www.epos.de/projects/recruitment-programme-support-unit-psu-and-s...

A PPP Workshop, funded by KfW and hosted by the Government of West Bengal Department of Health and Family Welfare, was being held in India September 28-29.

Health professionals, policy makers and private sector representatives met to identify and analyse the strategic and competitive issues facing the three major PPP players (payer of the services, purchaser of the services and providers of the services) with special consideration as to how PPP initiatives impact efficiency of processes throughout the value chain.

The Tajikistan National Tuberculosis (TB) Referral Hospital in Macheton, after undergoing extensive infrastructure rehabilitation and state-of-the-art diagnosis re-equipment measures through the KfW-funded “Tuberculosis Control Programme” project, was handed over to the Ministry of Health.

EPOS Audit responds to the need of hospitals, rehabilitation centres and nursing homes to comply with statutory provisions during the preparation of annual financial statements. Additionally, auditing services encompass a variety of tasks in order to strengthen trust in the hospitals’ accounting system and figures.

Specific EPOS Audit services include:

Kyrgyzstan: HIV/ AIDS Prevention Programme II – Safe Blood Transfusion Kick-Off

Cambodia:

• Vouchers for Reproductive Health Services Cambodia (Phase I) http://www.epos.de/projects/vouchers-reproductive-health-services-cambod...

Cameroon:

• Promotion of Health Insurance Approaches http://www.epos.de/projects/promotion-health-insurance-approaches

China:

Development of the Health Sector (SWAp) Programme - Reproductive Health Voucher Scheme (output based approach)

OBA (Output-based Approach) was an approach to improving health care, which was compatible with the 4 pillars of the GoK’s (Government of Kenya) vision for health care (health care for all Kenyans, reform of the NHIF (National Health Insurance Fund), GoK responsibility for the poor, establishment of a Health Benefits Regulatory Authority).

EPOS Health Management was required to provide the Pre-Feasibility Study & Market Analysis for the proposed MCC along with concept designs from RRP Architects & Engineers through a separate contract. The scope of this Pre-Feasibility Study and Market Analysis was to contribute to the initial development of the concept for the MCC.

Strengthening Public Health Institutes in Bosnia and Herzegovina (07/2009-07/2011)

EPOS successfully implements the largest EU funded health sector project in the Ukraine "Support to Secondary Health Care Reform" and develops recommendations for systematic reform of the health sector as a whole based on the best European practices. The approach is highly appreciated by MoH

Support to Syria's National Cancer Strategy: Feasibility Studies for the Aleppo and Homs Cancer Centres

The project aimed at providing technical support at three different levels so called a "Three Ones" principles: (i) one national coordinating authority, (ii) achievement of one national Anti-cancer policy with one time-bound and measurable strategy implementation plan, and (iii) one M&E and surveillance system.

EPOS is awarded the biggest ever European Union consultancy contract in China. The consortium EPOS, GOPA Consultants, Callund Consulting Ltd. and BBJ Consult is assisting the Chinese Government in its important Social Security Reform Programm.

http://www.epos.de/projects/technical-assistance-eu-china-social-securit...

EPOS creates an Information Communication Technology Competence Centre (ICT) with the objective to improve appropriate health technology in developing countries. ICT is officially launched with the participation of WHO Geneva on December 10th in Bad Homburg

During the last few years, the Central Asian Countries have started implementing the DOTS Strategy in accordance with the recommendations of the WHO in order to bring the TB problem under control. Alternating conferences are planned as a platform for the Central Asian Countries to support the successful trans-boundary regional co-operation and coordination in order to tackle one of the main common health issues in this region: How to fight TB efficiently regarding treatment outcome and costs.

Major re-engineering of internal structures EPOS executed a major re-engineering of its internal structures: by introducing four technical competence areas instead of regional departments, EPOS aims at improving the quality of technical backstopping for project implementation processes as well as knowledge management. The four technical areas are: Health Policy and Financing, Integrated Primary Health Care, Health Facilities and Services, Financial Management.

EPOS applies high professional standards, a prerequisite for timely delivery of cost-effective and high quality services. EPOS is one of the few consulting companies in Europe to hold the ISO 9001:2008 certificate in quality management for programmes in the health sector.

Picture: Ute Horn-Lemke, Robert Gaertner, Hans Otto, Erwin Munske, Dieudonnee Schweigart

Implementation of a Control System for Medical Equipment and Consumables in Hospitals (01/1992-08/1995)

The project objective was to provide conceptual advice and implementation support in the fields of: electrical safety; safety of use of selected technical equipment; information, registration and documentation services; administrative structures; organisational development; training of administrative staff and improving the control system for active medical devices in cooperation with a local partner.