Herat hospitals make ‘good progress’ in health services

HERAT (Agencies): Doctors say good progress has been made in the medical sector in Herat and about 90 percent of patients are treated in private and government hospitals of this province. Mehraban Hospital is one of the private hospitals in Herat, where doctors have made progress in orthopedics, urology and laser surgeries. The hospital officials say up to 500 patients visit this health daily for diagnosis and treatment. “The work we do is currently close to or at the same level as many services that are done in neighboring countries; we intend to be able to do more by getting funding and economic investment,” said Abdul Basir Seddiq, general manager of Mehraban Hospital. “Knee joint replacement and hip joint replacement [surgery], as well as fractures that happen to the pelvis, are performed at Mehraban Hospital,” said Bashir Ahmad Ahmadi, an orthopedic specialist. In addition, some of these hospitals have established major specialty and subspecialty departments, and doctors perform complex operations. Herat Public Health Department officials meanwhile say their goal is to develop health services so that all people may have access to these services. According to them, medical services have improved recently and private sectors are equipped with good facilities and capacities. “A series of problems that existed in the past was the issue of specialized services, where some patients actually went abroad for specialized services in order to solve their health problems. Today, great steps have been taken in the field of providing super-specialized services in Herat province,” said Mohammad Asif Kabir, deputy public health of Herat. According to reports, around 100 private hospitals and clinics are providing health services in Herat along with government hospitals.