By Asadullah Ludin and Abubakar Siddique
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
December 22, 2024

Thousands of health-care professionals have fled Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power in 2021.

The severe shortage of doctors, including specialists, has left millions of Afghans with limited or no access to health-care services.

The flight of medical professionals has been fueled by the Taliban’s oppressive rule and the humanitarian crisis gripping the country. Doctors have also complained of poor working conditions, low salaries, and harassment.

Abdullah Ahmadi, the former head of the Wazir Akbar Khan hospital in Kabul, one of the largest in the country, left Afghanistan just months after the Taliban takeover.

“The conditions for me were suffocating,” said Ahmadi, an orthopedic surgeon who now lives in Finland.

He said that he was threatened and humiliated by unqualified and uneducated Taliban members who were appointed to positions in the Public Health Ministry and state-run hospitals.

Safa Hassani, an Afghan psychiatrist now living in Germany, said the Taliban’s decision in September 2021 to ban teenage girls from attending school convinced his family to leave their homeland.

“I sacrificed my job and profession so my daughters can study,” said Hassani, adding that overseas doctors face major challenges in obtaining a license to practice medicine in Europe.

‘A Big Vacuum’

Sonia Cautain, a veteran French aid worker who worked in Kabul until 2023, witnessed firsthand the impact of the mass exodus of doctors from the country.

“Afghanistan has lost a lot of its best doctors,” she said, adding that many left for the sake of their careers and families “because they didn’t know what to expect” from the Taliban.

Cautain, who led a charity overseeing the French Medical Institute for Mothers and Children in Kabul, said the flight of doctors has “left a big vacuum in the health-care system.”

The shortage of doctors is depriving Afghans of access to proper medical treatment. Some have been forced to seek expensive treatments abroad.

Abdul Ahad said he went to neighboring Pakistan to get treatment for kidney stones. He said he spent over $1,000 to get surgery.

Ahad complained that he could not find a qualified doctor to treat him in Kabul.

“Some of the [Afghan] doctors told me that the stones were in my kidney while others said it was stuck in my ureters,” he said.

For every 10,000 people in Afghanistan, there are just 10 health workers, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a recent report.

That is significantly lower than the required ratio of 44 health workers for every 10,000 people needed for universal health coverage, the organization said.

The WHO estimates that nearly 18 million Afghans need health assistance out of a population of around 40 million. Some 9.5 million Afghans have “limited or no basic health services,” the organization said.

The Taliban’s ban on education for women has deprived the country of new female medical graduates. Afghanistan was short of women health-care workers even before the Taliban seized power.

‘Dying On Their Way To See A Doctor’

Earlier this month, the militant Islamist group banned midwife and nurse training in Afghanistan, triggering concerns over the health consequences for women.

The exodus of medical professionals has been compounded by the loss of international funding, which accounted for over 75 percent of public spending under the previous Western-backed Afghan government.

“The sharp drop in development support sent a shock through the economy and the public health system,” Human Rights Watch said in a report released in February.

The rights watchdog said insufficient health care “has left the population vulnerable to disease and other consequences of inadequate medical care.”

Kayarash, an Afghan doctor who moved to the Czech Republic, said the “quality of available treatments has decreased” in Afghanistan.

He said the shortage of doctors, particularly female physicians, has forced patients to wait longer for specialist care.

“We are likely to see more deaths because of preventable diseases,” he said.

In remote parts of Afghanistan, the lack of doctors is already proving fatal.

Waris Shah lives in the remote district of Barmal in the southeastern province of Paktika. He said the shortage of doctors has compelled residents to seek treatment in Kabul, located hundreds of kilometers away.

“Patients are frequently dying while on their way to see a doctor,” he said.

Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.