Nangarhar receives no new ventilators from Kabul

JALALABAD (Pajhwok): The Ministry of Public Heath has provided no ventilator for coronavirus patients in eastern Nangarhar province, local health officials say.

However, three months earlier during a visit to the province, health ministry officials said the ministry had provided six ventilators worth $96,000 to Nangarhar.

Pajhwok Afghan News received lists of ventilators available in Nangarhar from the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and from the Nangarhar Public Health Department.

The lists could be seen unmatched; the earlier claim that Nangarhar received no ventilators is also proved when both lists are compared.

The MoPH list shows Nangarhar was provided with 19 ventilators in which four are dysfunctional, but the local health department list showed 22 ventilators are present in Nangarhar in which five are dysfunctional.

Governor Shah Mahmood Miakhel on his facebook page wrote that no new ventilator had been provided to them in the aftermath of coronavirus and no fund was provided to the province as well.

“Eight ventilators were available in the Kinden Hospital in the past, one was sent to Laghman and one to Kunar in line with the directives of health minister.”

Public Health Director Dr. Naseer Durrani acknowledged the governor’s claim and said six ventilators were present in the Coronavirus Ward and seven in the ICU, these ventilators are neither stolen nor missing.

The statements of the both officials contradict their statements three months earlier when six ventilators worth $96,000 were provided by the MoPH to Nangarhar.

The Nangarhar Governor Office Media Wing and the Public Health Department on their facebook pages wrote March 31 that the MoPH provided 6 ventilators worth $96,000.

The Nangarhar Governor Office media wing and the the Public Health Department on its facebook pages published videos on March 30 this year in which Governor Shah Mahmood Miakhel and the then Health Minister Ferozuddin Feroz could be seen and the footage proved that ventilators were present.

Pajhwok obtained a copy of the list of ventilators provided by Nangarhar Public Health Department to MoPH and it shows that three months back, six ventilators worth $96,000 that had transferred by Ferozuddin Feroz were not new but taken from Nangarhar’s kidney hosptial.

At the top of the list there is a note from public health department says: “All the ventilators were already available. Six ventilators of the kidney hospital have been taken to coronavirus hospital for critical coronavirus patients and all are functional.”

The lists also show that there is lack of coordination between Nangarhar health department and MoPH about the available ventilators and they provide different figures.

According to ministry’s figures, there are a total of 20 ventilators in Nangarhar and none of them has been provided by the MoPH after the coronavirus crisis, nor one has been purchased for coronavirus patients.

At the end of the first list provided by health department to MoPH written that 19 ventilators are available in Nangarhar, four of them are inactive, 13 are in general ICO of Zonal Hospial and six others are available in the hospital specified for coronavirus patients.

The first copy of the ventilators lists was signed by Public Health Director Dr. Naseer Durrani.

Pajhwok received a list of ventilators from Nangarhar public health department and it says that a total of 22 ventialtors are existed, five of them are dysfunctional and changes in the list were made after it was sent to ministry.

The Nangarhar Health Department has a note in the lower part of its list. saying total 22 ventilators are available in Nangarhar. Thirteen are present in the Jalalabad Zonal Hospital, six transferred to Cornavirus Rehabilitation Centre and three others are present in BPHC project related hospitals in (Ghanikhel and Khogyani) districts.

The list of ventilators includes all 22 ventilators that have not been sent to Nangarhar by MoPH and seven such machines donated by Dr. Matiullah who lives in Denmark.

A source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Pajhwok that the last three ventilators were not the ownership of MoPH but they were belonging to the organization that provide health service in districts.

The 2^nd copy of the lsit of ventilators was not signed by Public Health Director Dr. Naseer Ahmad Durrani, but there are signatures of three others.

Governor Spokesperson Attaulllah Khogyani said ventilators were in Nangarhar hospitals and the Coronavirus Rehabilitation Centre brought no ventilator from the centre.

He said it was not mentioned as when these machines were brought by the minister from Kabul.

Nangarhar Provincial Council Member Suhrab Qadri said contradictory statements regarding ventilators showed that corruption had marred the process.

He said it was first said that ventilators were provided in assistance but now they say these machined exited from the past. “Such contradictory statements are proving corruption in this process,” he added.

Civil society activists said either the news of ventilators three months earlier was wrong or the currently view of the governor and Public Health Department are wrong. “The provision of wrong information to public is also a form of corruption, he believed.

It is fifth report by Pajhwok in a series tracking ventilators.

Nh/sa/ma