According to residents and advocacy groups in central Ghor province, medical services and facilities offered there are so inadequate that many locals seeking care are forced travel long distances often to other provinces, trips of desperation that many emergency patients don't survive.

"People in Ghor province confront major challenges in health services," said Nabi Saqi, a Ghor civil society activist. "In some cases, people are transferred to Kabul and Herat forcing them to travel long distances, and sometimes patients die before they reach the doctors."

Officials in the Provincial Department of Public Health said that only two medical degree-holding practitioners were available in Ghor, which is considered one of Afghanistan's most remote and underserved provinces. They said that the emergency care facilities in the province were inadequate to meet the needs of residents, and acknowledged that the deficiencies often led to avoidable deaths.

Jumma Gul Yaqoubi, the Chairman of Ghor Provincial Hospital, said that his facility has the capacity of treating only 100 patients, but more than 300 are currently admitted to the hospital. Pushed three times over capacity, the hospital is also short-staffed.

"In the administrative structure of the hospital, eleven doctors were designated to provide medical treatment, but right now, only two medical experts are working in the whole hospital and only seven general physicians are on duty, which is really below the requirements," Mr. Yaqoubi said.

Syed Anwar Rahmati, the Governor of Ghor, assured that new plans to expand and renovate the Provincial Hospital would address the problems Ghor residents have faced.

"We intend to build two new wings of Ghor Provincial Hospital and with them the health service problems faced by the local people will end," said Governor Rahmati.

Yet the potential for an expansion of the Provincial Hospital, however extensive, to completely resolve the medical service issues plaguing Ghor residents at the moment is unlikely. Back in May of this year, TOLOnews reported that the primary challenge facing Ghor patients was traveling long distances from rural villages to the scarce medical facilities in the province. While the quality of facilities is important, it would seem the accessibility of them is equally so.

Another major issue afflicting the medical services provided for Ghor residents is the lack of female practitioners.

"Sometimes families don't allow the female members to go to the health centers because the doctors are all men," Ghor MP Sima Joinda told TOLOnews back in May.
Considered one of the poorest provinces in the country, it is clear that the lack of services and development in Ghor has led to more than just a lower quality of life than is found in other provinces, it has led to higher likelihood of death.