The Government of Japan has provided grant funds of 147,200 euros (about 287,900 BAM) for two projects to purchase X-ray devices for the Institute for Health Protection of Transportation Workers in Sarajevo and the Health Center in Brod.
The grant agreements were signed at the residence of the Japanese ambassador by Ambassador Kinefuchi Masami and the directors of those institutions, Halima Ćutuk and Igor Jeremić.
Ambassador Kinefuchi Masami hopes that the new X-ray devices will contribute to the provision of better medical services to patients and help improve the quality of life for BiH citizens.
The grant will be used to equip the health care center with one X-ray machine. The center was established in 1966 and serves as the only medical service provider in the city. It is expected that around 3,300 people will benefit from this grant aid annually. Both projects of equipping two healthcare centers with new digital X-ray machines will increase the quality of examination and monitoring of the patients’ conditions, which thus will improve their overall diagnostics capabilities.
Moreover, the replacement of the existing X-ray machines in both healthcare centers with new digital machines will enable sharing the patients’ X-ray data digitally with other healthcare providers and hospitals, which will allow more effective and efficient treatments the patients.
The Government of Japan has been assisting the improvement of essential sectors, including health care and education, in Bosnia and Herzegovina through the scheme of Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GAGP) which began in 1996.
The total grants approved in the last 27 years amount to over 20 million euros (approx. 39 million BAM). These funds were utilized for equipping facilities, for construction and renovation and for the elimination of landmines, said the Embassy of Japan.