Background

EMERGENCY’s Kabul Surgical Centre is one of the most important medical facilities in Afghanistan.

Work started here in 2000, when EMERGENCY began renovating and expanding a former nursery school in the centre of the capital city, Kabul. The nursery had been destroyed by a rocket, in an incident which killed five children. In April 2001, this site re-opened as EMERGENCY’s Surgical Centre for War Victims, and was expanded further in 2015 to improve the facilities and increase the number of beds.  

The Kabul Surgical Centre houses an impressive number of facilities, including three operating theatres; an intensive care unit; an emergency room; outpatient clinics; a laboratory and blood bank; a radiology department; and equipment for physiotherapy and CT scans. The centre also specialises in trauma surgery.  

It is a key facility for treatment of injuries mostly caused by firearms but also mines, unexploded ordnance and knives. 

The hospital has been open and fully operational throughout the numerous phases of the conflict since 2001. The Kabul Surgical Centre treated patients during the extremely volatile summer of 2021, culminating with the collapse of the Afghan government in August of that year.

The Kabul Surgical Centre remains open and committed to continuing operations uninterrupted. 

“Last night was a disaster,” Alberto Zanin, medical coordinator in Kabul said in an interview on Friday. “We are not used to casualty numbers this high. Our hospital is over capacity at the moment. We had to add extra beds.” https://t.co/xcDGQlHCXh

— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) August 27, 2021

Education

The Kabul Surgical Centre operates in line with EMERGENCY’s ethos of working to provide sustainable healthcare through the training of local staff. The Kabul hospital is officially recognised as a centre for specialist training in emergency surgery and traumatology. Additionally, we have designed and run courses for doctors and nurses from public hospitals on dealing with trauma and mass casualties.  

We welcome Afghan men and women as students in our residency training, strengthening the sustainability of the country’s economy and health system.

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First Aid Posts and Primary Healthcare Centres

In order to provide healthcare to those in need, EMERGENCY established First Aid Posts and Primary Healthcare Centres for vulnerable populations in the heart of Kabul: in prisons and orphanages. In these facilities, our local medics provide crucial care to patients. When necessary, patients are stabilised and then transferred to EMERGENCY’s hospital facilities by our ambulance service, which operates 24/7.

EMERGENCY’s Surgical Centre in Kabul is funded by the European Union