QALAT (PAN): Authorities in southern Zabul province, complaining of a shortage of qualified public health staff, say nurses are working instead of doctors at hospitals in three districts.  
The 21 healthcare centres operational across the province could not meet people’s needs due to a shortage of skilled doctors, Public Health director, Dr. Lal Mohammad Tokhi said.
In an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News, he said nurses were working in place of doctors in Dai Chopan, Arghandab and Khak-i-Afghan districts of the province.
Only two female doctors were working in the main provincial hospital in Qalat, said the official, who hastened to explain that health services had improved in recent years, but not enough.
“Few years ago, we had to evacuate our patients to Kandahar for treatment, but now they can be treated in Zabul,” the director continued.
Tokhi accused the Ministry of Public Health of allocating inadequate medicine to the province, which could not address the problems of the Zabul population that he put at 900,000.
According to the official, a proposal has been submitted to the ministry for building training centres for midwives and nurses in Qalat.
Deputy Governor Mohammad Jan Rassoul Yar confirmed the problems facing the public health department and residents. The doctors, willing to work in remote areas, sought higher salaries, he said.