Musa Qaleh – Community Healthcare Centre

The cream painted building with a silver corrugated iron roof was refurbished with the help of the British Forces Military Stabilisation Support Team in 2008 on Herrick 9.  During this refurbishment, using local contractors, the roof was replaced and a new water supply was installed in the building.  Inside the building was brightened up with a fresh coat of paint.  Outside a new water tower was built to supply the needs off the Health Centre and the make shift Mosque that has grown on the ground across the road, the designated site for the towns new Mosque.

Entering the Healthcare centre, though the walls are still bright in their grey and white livery, there is the ever present layer of dust on the floor.  Looking around the centre it has everything you might expect to find from a Health Centre in the UK.  A waiting room and consulting rooms.  What you might not find in the UK in you local GP’s surgery or Health Centre is an area for beds so patients with medical requirements that don’t need them to travel to the hospital in Lashkar Gah can be treated in Musa Qaleh, and a pharmacy. 

In one of the consulting rooms Dr Abdul Hardimajad is ending a consultation with a patient; he is one of two doctors in the centre that are supported by four nurses.  ‘In a month we treat over 2500 people patients here.  We get our medical supplies from Lashkar Gah every month.  One of the Doctors has to go the Lashkar Gah to pass on our reports and collect our medicines.’

A sign that Afghanistan’s Ministry Of Health and Care is supporting Musa Qaleh, is given by Dr Abdul “We get all our supplies from the Ministry of Health and Care in Kabul. We are not faced with any problems when we are getting our supplies; we are getting them very easily.
 
"The British forces helped build the centre the District Governor is also doing a good job because he is always coming here and talking with us and asking what problems we have.  Right now this is a clinic but the Governor wants to change it to a hospital so he is busy on that project at the moment. The main problem is that right now the only body that can change this unit from a clinic to a hospital is the Ministry of Health and Care.  The second problem is that the clinic is a bit small so we will need more rooms for the patients so that’s why we can’t change this place to a hospital."

This is not the only healthcare provider in Musa Qaleh, Mike McKie the Foreign Office Stabilisation Officer explains, ‘In terms of healthcare the people have significant access to public and privately provided health care, there are currently two doctors in the government run health facility and a myriad of other services in the Bazaar.  Unfortunately they are a bit expensive at this time but never the less the population will seek those opportunities.  I hasten to add, for critical health needs the UK forces have never let the population down and have always been an active part in supporting Musa Qaleh’s needs.

He continues, ‘When we talk about the health situation here, the developing health infrastructure is challenged by the need for female health practitioners, midwifery is a critical need.  Throughout the years of hostilities in Afghanistan sufficient trained woman have not been available, this is because the opportunity for women to gain an education has not been afforded, particularly during the time under the Taliban.  There seems to be a realisation in the population that educating the girls will ultimately provide them the kind of health services they expect to be provided by a health centre.  It has been a long process in the learning but this is forthcoming.’

ENDS