Ghazni hospital on brink of collapse

GHAZNI CITY (PAN): The civil hospital in southern Ghazni province is yet to be vacated despite a warning by a technical team two years ago that the building could collapse anytime.

The hospital director, Dr. Baz Mohammad Himmat, confirmed to Pajhwok Afghan News they had been warned by a joint team of technical officials from Kabul and Ghazni that the hospital structure was on the brink of collapse and should be vacated as soon as possible.

Since the warning came, Himmat said he had time and again shared the problem with the central government, but failed to elicit any positive response.

He said the hospital had been built 63 years ago of raw bricks. The foundation stone for a new 200-bed hospital was laid four years ago, but later its construction was halted for unknown reasons, Himmat said.

Ghazni Public Health Director Dr. Zia Gul Asfandi acknowledged the Ministry of Public Health was aware of the civil hospital building’s condition.

She said it was a three-year-old story when the building started developing cracks. “The ministry has promised to start work on a new building this year. Five months are gone, but the work is yet to be launched,” she said.

She said the hospital was needed to be shifted to a rented building on emergency footing in order to avoid any fatal incident.

The existing facilities at the half century old hospital, also visited by people from neighbouring Zabul, Paktika and Maidan Wardak provinces, could not satisfy patients’ demand, the public health director said.

Provincial council member Hamida Gulistani said the hospital was in extremy bad condition and needed urgent attention.

Work on a new building for the hospital remained incomplete over the past five years, she lamented.

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