Š Francois Dumont/MSF
International Activity Report 2012
A three-year-old boy and his younger sister in the emergency room of Boost hospital. The children sustained head injuries when a bomb in Lashkargah caused the wall of their house to collapse.
clinic. In 2012, emergency obstetric care, including surgery, was extended to offer services round the clock. Staff developed mental health and health promotion services to complement medical care at the hospital, particularly in maternity, nutrition, emergency and outpatient services. A system was put in place to register complaints, in order to increase transparency and improve communication with patients. Boost hospital, Lashkargah MSF continued to support one of the only two functioning referral hospitals in southern Afghanistan, Boost hospital in Lashkargah. It provides surgery, internal medicine, and maternity, paediatric and emergency services. Staff in the outpatient clinic saw over 7,000 patients per month, many of whom had travelled long distances to obtain medical assistance. The number of patients has grown as people have learned about the hospital and its services. The total number of surgical procedures increased to more than
3,000, over a third of them trauma-related orthopaedic operations. The hospital also has an inpatient unit specialising in care for severely malnourished children, where some 900 children were treated. By the end of the year, the hospital was equipped with 250 beds, and an extension to the paediatric and neonatology departments was completed with MSF support. About 2,000 people were admitted to the hospital each month, a 15-fold increase in patients since MSF started work in this hospital in 2009. Ensuring safety at Khost maternity hospital
the hospital has the capacity to assist more than 1,000 women to give birth every month and to deal with obstetric emergencies. Just six weeks after it opened, the hospital was targeted in a bomb attack. The explosion wounded seven people and MSF suspended activities because of the security risks to staff and patients. After several months of extensive talks with community leaders and other relevant parties, MSF was assured of support and safety for its medical activities and reopened the hospital at the end of December. Before the incident, the team assisted over 600 births. MSF continues to enforce a strict no-weapons policy at all locations where it works.
Khost, near the border with Pakistan, is a very insecure province, with minimal medical services. The one general hospital, located outside the city of Khost, is understaffed. As a significant proportion of the surgical staff is male, women are deterred from seeking healthcare. In March, MSF opened a maternity hospital in the city centre, staffed only by female doctors and nurses. Equipped with 56 beds,
No. staff end 2012: 1,111 | Year MSF first worked in the country: 1981 | msf.org/afghanistan
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