KABUL (SW) – The public health ministry is only able to address 3.4% of the needs of citizens across the country, said officials on Tuesday.
Officials of the Ministry of Public Health, today, from December 12, celebrated the Universal Health Coverage Day with the slogan “Health is peace, peace is the right of every person”.
Mohammad Hasan Ghiyashi, Deputy Minister of Policy and Planning of the Ministry of Public Health, said that the cost of treatment for the citizens in Afghanistan is back-breaking and this ministry only covers 3.4% of the cost of treating citizens’ diseases.
Statistics of the Ministry of Public Health show that this ministry is not able to cover 96.6% of the cost of treating of the patients. “77 percent of citizens pay for their health services themselves, which is a back-breaking figure for citizens. 18 percent of the health services are delivered by international organizations and only 3.4 percent of the cost of treatment is managed by the Ministry of Health”.
At the same time, representatives of a number of organizations assisting the Ministry of Public Health said they are worried about maternal mortality and citizens’ lack of access to quality health services in the country.
Malali, the representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Afghanistan, said on the occasion that the organization continues to support the Ministry of Public Health. “Maternal mortality in Afghanistan is still high compared to neighboring countries, and this mortality is preventable, and Afghan people do not have access to basic health services.”
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