Women’s healthcare requires 75 percentfemale workers: Ebad

KABUL (Ariana News): Acting Minister of Public Health Qalandar Ebad has said that the country’s health sector needs 75 percent female workers to provide health services to women.
Speaking in a debate program on Ariana News, Ebad said that the health sector has made progress but it is still facing some challenges.
According to him, after the political change in Afghanistan, access to health services has increased, but in provision of quality services, Afghanistan’s health sector is facing a shortage of female health workers, specialized medics, new technological equipment and medicines.
“I have said in many occasions that we need 75 percent presence of female workers for women’s healthcare. That means, if 75 percent of our sisters are not present in this area, we may not be able to reach the target,” Ebad said.
He also stated that there are about 70 specialty hospitals and 11,000 beds across the country, but 45,000 beds are needed to access standard health services. According to him, the pharmaceutical industry in the country is very weak and only about three percent of the needed medicines are produced domestically.
Ebad admitted that there are problems in the field of cancer treatment. He said that Afghanistan needs international license for radiotherapy. A large number of Afghans travel to other countries, especially to Pakistan and India, for the purpose of treating their patients, with expenses reaching millions of dollars.