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Provincial reconstruction team expands provincial hospital for Afghans

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Angelique N. Smythe
  • 451st Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan --  A cornerstone ceremony for a new, modern wing of the Zabul Provincial Hospital took place in Qalat Dec. 26. This building will replace the old provincial hospital which was built three years ago but is now structurally unsound.

The International Security Assistance Forces Provincial Reconstruction Team Zabul is working in partnership with local community leaders to complete this project. Contractors have a time period of approximately nine months to complete this new $300,000 hospital expansion.

In a speech during the ceremony, Maj. Elizabeth Erickson, PRT Zabul senior medical officer, said, "We've all worked very hard during the last several months with a lot of transitions. I would like to applaud the hospital staff for their flexibility and for working in this much smaller space. Soon we'll have more space for the outpatient clinic, trainings, classrooms and a library. I'm very excited to see this building get started."

The previous hospital was a $6 million facility funded by the United Arab Emirates in 2006. However, as early as two years after it'd been completed, there were signs of the building's instability and parts of the building were unable to be used for patient care.

In August, PRT Zabul completed a refurbishment project on an old district hospital which was no longer being used as a hospital.

Throughout the fall they made plans to move patients from the structurally unsound hospital to the newly refurbished building.

"This hospital's about 30 to 40 years old but has really good construction," said Major Erickson. "The refurbishment project redid things such as the plumbing, paint, windows and indoors, but because that space is smaller, we're building an additional structure on that compound to make up for the space deficit."

This new wing will primarily be an outpatient facility, but there will also be space for medical training courses.

"We do a lot of educational interaction with the hospital," said Major Erickson. "We've set up a weekly lecture series that we do with the hospital staff."

Weekly lectures and mentoring rotate between the PRT Zabul medical team, a Jordanian military medical team and Afghan medical professionals. They go over various topics, including emergency themes such as head and chest trauma.

"We keep it really bilateral," said Major Erickson. "They can learn from us, but we can learn from them as well."

The ceremony was attended by key military and government officials, such as Maj. Gen. Stephen Mueller, U.S. Air Forces Central Air Component Coordination Element director, Brig. Gen. Frederick Hodges, director of operations for Regional Command South, Brig. Gen. Guy Walsh, 451st Air Expeditionary Wing commander, Lt. Col. Andy Veres, commander of Provincial Reconstruction Team Zabul, and Zabul's Provincial Governor Mohammad Ashraf Naseri.

"The people of Zabul are very fortunate to have a governor who fights so hard to get help and resources for the people here," said General Hodges. "We are very proud of those who are here to work with the people of Zabul to help with building this facility."