A number of Herat residents said on Friday that lack of ‘required’ diagnostic and treatment facilities push dozens of Herat residents to travel abroad for treatment.

The residents claimed that majority of medicines in the local market has low quality.

“There is no diagnostic facility in Herat. Doctors cannot diagnose diseases properly. We have no way but to travel abroad for treatment due to scarcity of modern laboratories and the existence of low quality medicines,” said Mohammad Daud, a resident of Herat.

The residents also said many private healthcare centers have merged health with trade in their services.

“I took my father to a private hospital 45 days ago. He was diagnosed to have cancer. We were concerned. Then I took him abroad for treatment. There, they found that he suffers from a simple disease and he recovered well,” Ghulam Ali Habibi, another Herat residents said.

Meanwhile, the provincial director of public health, Abdul Hakim Tamanna, said they are not able to prevent the flow of low quality medicines in the local market.

“Unfortunately, a big part of pharmaceuticals is being smuggled into the country. Therefore, we cannot monitor the quality of smuggled medicines,” he said. 

“We have 65 private healthcare centers. It is not easy to assess all of them, because we face lack of personnel,” he added.