Kabul Surgical Centre
EMERGENCY’s Surgical Centre is the only free, specialist trauma surgery hospital in the Afghan capital.
Background
EMERGENCY’s Kabul Surgical Centre is one of the most important medical facilities in Afghanstan.
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 a Surgical Centre for Victims of War, 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 A&E; 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.
In addition to being a referral point for the population of Kabul and neighboring provinces, the center welcomes patients coming in from the most remote areas, in part due to the availability of the only free CT scanner in the country.
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.
In 2022 we started a residency program in anesthesia and a fellowship (post-specialty) in intensive care. There are a total of 24 new residents who have started their journey in our hospitals in Afghanistan: 10 of them just in Kabul, among them also a woman.
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Programme Data
Location: Kabul
Start of clinical activities: April 2001
Activities: Surgery for war victims.
Facilities: Accident and emergency, clinics, 3 operating theatres, sterilisation, intensive care, sub-intensive care, wards, physiotherapy, CT (computed tomography), radiology, laboratory and blood bank, pharmacy, classrooms, play room, technical and support services.
Outpatients consultations: 173,775
Admissions: 65,696
Surgical operations: 92,257
(Data correct as of December 2022)
EMERGENCY’s Surgical Centre in Kabul is funded by the European Union
