KABUL (SW): As a result of a suicide attack at the Kabul Serena Hotel eight years ago, he sustained an injury on his left knee, and 20 days ago due to infection the doctors had to finally amputate his leg.
Ahmad Hakim, 38-year old, is now lying in his bed at Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital (WAKH), pale and with listless and hopeless eyes.
“If we don’t call doctors or if we don’t tell them that the patient is not feeling well, they don’t bother to come themselves. We have to go for them 20 times a day so that they could see a patient” he said.
He said that there has been only one doctor for 100 patients and the patients don’t have proper meal either.
He added that WAKH was only a hospital for the sake of its name, and the patients have to pay for everything from their own pockets, except for the doctor’s prescription. In his room, there are 8 other patients in the orthopedic ward of the hospital.
Opposite Abdul Hakim’s bed, lied an old man who said he had come from Ghazni province to Kabul to find job.
He doesn’t give his name but like Ahmad Hakim, he complained about the doctors and the way of services in the hospital.
“I have been in bed for 23 days now, I broke my leg working for my employer, but like private hospitals here too, the doctors pay no attention to the patients.” he complained.
These patients said that since they are poor they have to visit government hospitals and asked government for better services for patients.
Dr. Sayed Elham, Head of the Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital, told Salam Watandar that the hospital faced lack of medicine and they could not meet all the patients’ needs.
He said that this was the only hospital, which has an orthopedic theatre in Afghanistan with nearly 600 patients who visit it on daily basis.
He added that the hospital has a total of 400 staffers out of whom 125 are doctors. He said that the number of doctors was not sufficient enough. He asked the Ministry of Public Health to increase the number of doctors at the WAKH.
He further said that that they needed afn 50 million for the current year but they were only given afn 18 million. At the end, he said they considered afn 50 within 24 hours for each patient for their meal but now it has been decreased to afn 30, which is never enough.
ENDS
