Kandahar’s Nesh residents lack access to ample health services

KANDAHAR CITY (Pajhwok): Some residents Nesh district of southern Kandahar province are complaining about lack of access to health services.

Syed Mohammad, a resident of Nesh district, told Pajhwok: “We have only one clinic in the entire distric with a few facilities while the population is large, it is not enough.”

He said local residents had to take their patients to Kandahar city and emergency patients were usually taken to the district clinic.

According to him: “When someone falls ill, we try to take him/her to the city which is far away and the roads are in bad condition. We take patients to the district clinic in case of emergency, but often doctors are not available there.”

Another resident, Gulajan, said no access to proper health facilities was their biggest problem, which must be solved by the government. “Either build a bigger clinic for us or increase the number of doctors and medicines in this clinic.”

He added that the district was sprawling and all its residents could not go to the district clinic. He suggested if small clinics were established in different parts of the district, people’s problems would be reduced to a great extent.

Akhtar Mohammad, a resident of Ghanigi village, said they had no access to ambulance and other services.

He said: “The district clinic has no ambulance or any other vehicle to take women or other urgent patients to the city. Our demand is that the government should resolve our problems in this regard.”

Public Health Department officials say a 25-bed hospital has been approved for Nesh district and it will be made operational soon.

Deputy Director of Kandahar Public Health Department Dr. Ahmad Shah Shadab, said: "A 25-bed DH health center has been approved for Nesh district. We are also making efforts to provide medicines there, the new hospital will solve people’s health related problems."

Nesh district is situated 115 kilometers north of Kandahar city and most of its residents are farmers.

hz/ma