PESHAWAR, Nov 5: Lack of medical facilities in Afghanistan is haunting the poor people, as majority of them transport their near and dear ones for treatment to the hospitals in NWFP, which further deteriorate their condition.
Sherin Jana, 36, was admitted to the sole burns ward of the NWFP, at the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) on Oct 15.
Her father, Gul Rehman told Dawn that on Oct 4 Ms Jana went to a room at her house in the Kundi village, Lakan district of the Khost province, and as she lit the match-stick to light a gas lamp, the entire room caught fire.
She along with her two daughters Razeema, 7, and Shama, 3-month-old, received burn injuries.
He said that they were rushed to a nearby hospital but owing to unavailability of medical facilities Shama died and the other two were shifted to Miramshah in the North Waziristan Agency, but were sent to district headquarters hospital, Bannu. After ten days they were shifted to KTH buns ward in Peshawar where Razeema died on Nov 3.
“Ms Jana has got 20 percent superficial burn injuries but she stands little chances of survival because of her late arrival for the treatment,” said a doctor treating her at the hospital.
Mr Rehman said that the lack of medicaid was causing hardships not only to the patients in Afghanistan, but shifting them to Pakistan was also costing them dearly.
He said that most of the people were dependent on the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for cooking needs, because of the high rates of the fire-wood and many a times the LPG cylinders burst and kill people.
Lack of medical facilities had been a matter of grave concern for the Afghans. Two weeks ago, President Hamid Karzai also voiced concern over the non-availability of health facilities and asked the non-governmental organizations to get themselves registered with the planning department and submit their progress report after every three months.
Mr Karzai had also aired his reservations regarding the functioning of the UN agencies and said a few days back that the NGOs were spending bulk of the amount on their own upkeep, which was actually meant to improve the life standard of the war- battered people.
A two-day seminar was held a week ago to devise a working strategy for the NGOs working in the health sector.