Background:
A hospital, which is managed by Agha Khan Health Services AKHS since 2009, is the Faizabad provincial hospital, which serves as the only referral center for the majority of health facilities in Badakhshan province. AKDN manages the rehabilitation of Faizabad Provincial Hospital in three phases of construction. Furthermore, both hospitals are connected through eHealth with, which is effectively used for tele-consultation, tele-diagnosis and staff capacity building.  Bamyan and Faizabad Hospitals are the first Provincial Hospitals in Afghanistan that received ISO certification for quality management.

More Background:

Healthcare facilities

Many health care facilities were damaged in the wars of the last quarter century, and needed to be restored, but there were also many locations which had never had formal health care. In 2002, AKDN began a programme to focus on building a health care delivery system. This system included the construction of basic health centres – often in locations which had never had such a facility. The work, organised by the shura, the village council, and supported by the Aga Khan Foundation, is carried out by village labourers. Most of the centres consist of two observation or treatment rooms, a training room, pharmacy, laboratory, kitchen, a residence for staff, a pit latrine and bathroom.

The Basic Health Centres are only one component of a four-tiered approach. In the first tier, Community Health Workers, who are volunteers working out of Health Posts manned by one male and one female, are trained to provide health education, administer and advise on treatment for minor ailments and identify diseases for referral to Basic Health Centres. They are trained, supervised and given basic provisions by AKDN and remunerated by the communities served.

The Basic Health Centres, serving populations of 15,000 to 30,000 form the second tier and offer essential curative care and comprehensive maternal and child health care. Twelve such centres are now operational in Badakshan province.

A third tier of Comprehensive Health Centres serving populations of 30,000 to 60,000, offers basic health care and includes diagnostic, treatment and referral services, in addition to emergency obstetric care. Four such facilities have been constructed or rehabilitated, and are being managed and operated by AKDN in Badakshan on land donated by the communities to the Ministry of Health.

Between the Basic and Comprehensive Centres as well as District Hospitals (AKDN operates a District Hospital in Baharak, Badakhsan), a basic essential healthcare provision infrastructure is put in place for 320,000 people. Per capita payment arrangements with the government are the current policy direction in Afghanistan and allow AKDN to partly share the costs of service provision.

Referral Hospitals, the fourth tier, are similar to District/ Provincial Hospitals and offer referral and secondary care and other specialist services including obstetrics/gynaecology, surgery, paediatrics and general medicine. One of these referral hospitals, the Bamyan hospital, has been managed by the Aga Khan Health Services since 2003. The hospital has seen a steady increase in patient visits since then.