GHAZNI - Sick women and children continue to face medical crisis due to shortage of female doctors in Ghazni province, forcing authorities to refer patients to hospitals in the city, the local Roz News Agency reported.

Due to the lack of female doctors and medication, many mothers and children die in the province from diseases, said Lal Mohammad, a resident of Andar district. “We have seen that many women have died due to lack of female doctors to treat them,” he told the Roz News Agency.

Mina, a resident of Deh Yak district said, there are female doctors in Deh Yak clinic but not enough to treat all female patients in the district. Many people take their women to Ghazni city for maternity treatment.

While underscoring the problem, the head of WHO in Ghazni, Dr Fazal Ahmad, told UNAMA that there are vacant posts in the district-based hospitals and health centres, adding that the region lacks female medics to be recruited to work in the district hospitals. He also added that many women medics from the provincial capitals are not ready to go to districts citing security problems and some social and cultural constraints.

Public Health Director Zia Gul Asfanda said they only have one female doctor among the 60 health workers in the province. She said the construction of a midwifery institute is currently underway in Ghazni city and would be completed soon, which may ease the problem.