Facing the possibility of Afghanistan’s healthcare system completely collapsing, the United Nations announced the release of $45 million from an emergency fund to support Afghanistan’s healthcare system.

The United Nations’ top humanitarian official, Martin Griffiths, on Wednesday said in statement that he is releasing the fund to boost life-saving support in Afghanistan. “Allowing Afghanistan’s healthcare delivery system to fall apart would be disastrous,” he said. “People across the country would be denied access to primary healthcare such as emergency caesarean sections and trauma care.”

The former minister of public health Wahid Majruh said the emergency fund should be immediately sent to Afghanistan. According to Majruh, the Ministry of Public Health has not paid the salaries of doctors and medical employees for several months and it faces a shortage of medicine.

“The aid should come soon, if it arrives late, the problem will get worse. As a result, some health centers will be closed due to lack of equipment and medicine,” Majruh told TOLOnews.

Relatives of patients in Khost provincial hospital complained over problems with health services in their province, saying a lack of medicine and oxygen is big challenge.

Khost Resident Mir Saayed said: “ No medicine is available here. The medicine a patient needs we buy from outside the hospital.”

The UN announcement comes as World Health Organization chief Tedros Ghebreyesus completed a high-level mission to Kabul, where he met the prime minister of the caretaker government and other senior officials in Kabul.

The acting minister of foreign affairs of the caretaker government asked the international community to continue their support for the health sector in Afghanistan.