Kandahar Regional Military Hospital; the premier trauma care center in Afghanistan
Army Capt. Monika Comeaux
Deputy Command – Support Operations, Public Affairs Officer
NATO Training Mission – Afghanistan
While child mortality rates or average life expectancy in Afghanistan may come as a shock to the Western world, there are bright spots in the country’s health care system that affect entire regions.
One of these bright spots is the Afghan National Army’s Regional Military Hospital in Kandahar. Here, the wards are kept cool by air conditioning systems, patients lay in clean beds, most covered with colorful sheets and the medical staff, housekeeping and administration works around the clock to care for those in need. Not only do they treat combat injuries, they also assist civilians and following international healthcare norms, they also provide assistance to injured insurgents.
A nurse tends to an Afghan National Army soldier Aug. 20, 2012 in the ANA’s Kandahar Regional Medical Hospital. The hospital receives assistance from a training and mentor team from Regional Support Command-South, under NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan. Photo by U.S. Army Capt. Monika Comeaux, DCOM-SPO/NTM-A PAO
“A lot of what you see here is what we have done internally in the Afghan system ourselves,” said ANA Brig. Gen. Sayed Azim Hussaini, the hospital commander, through an interpreter. Azim has been a doctor serving his country for 28 years. He learned medicine in Kabul and prior to taking command of this facility, he commanded the ANA Regional Medical Hospital in Herat.
The facility recently increased the number of emergency room beds from three to nine, intensive care unit beds from four to seven, and doubled the number of total beds from 50 to 100 to accommodate general admission patients, said Dr. Mohammad Sadiq, Chief of the Medical Staff and general surgery specialist.
“The RMH here in Kandahar is probably the most advanced and efficient hospital in the entire Afghanistan,” Azim said. He and his coworkers continuously try to improve the facility and the efficiency of care. He greatly contributes the hospitals success to his devoted employees.
“I am very proud of my staff,” Azim said. They are very disciplined and organized. Each and every one of them are taking care of the patients…Nothing can be done by one person. I appreciate my team here and everything we do is teamwork. A commander without a team is not a commander; I am a commander because I have a team,” said Azim humbly.
Recently his team and the Afghan Air Force distinguished themselves with conducting the first four all-Afghan organized and Afghan-led MEDEVAC missions from KRMH, although Azim admits that the routine MEDEVAC process still needs some work.
The medical staff of the Afghan National Army’s Kandahar Regional Military Hospital, who were on duty Aug. 20, 2012, pose for a photo in one of the hallways of the hospital. The hospital averages 650 hospital bed days per month. They recently expanded their capacity to 100 general admission beds, nine emergency room beds and seven intensive care unit beds. Regional Support Command-East under NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan provides mentors and trainers who assist the staff at the hospital. Photo by U.S. Army Capt. Monika Comeaux, DCOM-SPO/NTM-A PAO
Other areas where they need to improve, Azim said, are getting medical supplies to the Class VIII medical supply warehouse and the hospital faster and they would also need more surgical subspecialists.
“What is unique here is how the Afghan providers do so much under such difficult circumstances. The providers are generalists and do amazing things…while they lack in subspecialties, they make up for it in just practical experience,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. John P. Savage, a medical adviser working with Azim and his team in Regional Support Command-South, under NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan.
KRMH treats 20 percent of the total ANA battle injuries and support 27 percent of all intensive care unit admissions for the ANA that occur in the entire country of Afghanistan. The hospital averages 650 hospital bed days per month, said Sadiq.
The hospital staff assists with the ANA’s Combat Medic Training, Combat Physician Assistant Program, and Biomedical Equipment Repair Training Program as well conducts their own staff training to improve the number of trained medical professionals within the ANA. Its Afghan physician-taught physician’s assistance class is half way through its 13-month duration and is predicted to graduate approximately 50, said Sadiq.
The NTM-A trainers, to include Savage are very optimistic about the hospital and have a high opinion about the quality of services provided there. “The staff is extremely committed, an effective organization, working with very limited resources, that I would trust with my own life,” said Savage. “If I was injured on that compound, the 20 minutes it would take to call and get a U.S. helicopter to come and get me, is 20 minutes I would not want to wait. I would trust the staff out there to be able to take care of me. There is no U.S. community based hospital that could do what they regularly do for trauma or mass casualty response.”
NATO Training Mission – Afghanistan is a coalition of 38 troop contributing nations assisting the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in generating a capable and sustainable Afghan National Security Force ready to take lead of their country’s security by 2014. For more information about NTM-A, visit www.ntm-a.com.
Category: News - General, News - Medical
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