Bayat Foundation on Sunday inaugurated a Maternity and Neonatal Hospital on the campus of Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital in Kabul and officially handed over the facility to the health ministry.

Bayat Foundation officials say the aim of establishing the hospital is to reduce infant and maternal mortality rates.

Dr. Ehsanullah Bayat, Chairman of the Bayat Foundation, said at the ceremony that according to statistics, three million mothers and children have been treated at hospitals built by the foundation across the country.

“Bayat Foundation hopes that the Ministry of Public Health will pay serious attention to procurement, required professional personnel and other requirements for the normal operation of the hospital and provide services to mothers and babies in need that are on a par with regional and world standards,” said Dr. Bayat.

The new hospital comprises four floors that cover an area of 3,200 square meters and cost 296 million AFN. It is also equipped with modern medical equipment, officials said.

“On the occasion of the completion of this four-story hospital, which was completed with an estimated investment of 296 million afghanis, I would like to thank Bayat Foundation,” said Mawlavi Abdul Salam Hanafi, the administrative deputy prime minister.

Meanwhile, Qalandar Ebad, the acting minister of health said at the ceremony that maternal and infant mortality rates have dropped in the country in the past two years.

Ebad said that the ministry has plans to provide health services in all provinces.

Islamic Emirate’s officials meanwhile also thanked Bayat Foundation for their assistance in various sectors including health, social and humanitarian sectors.

Afghanistan Food and Drug Authority (AFDA) says foodstuff and medicines will only be allowed to enter the country through customs once quality control tests have been carried out. 

Abdul Bari Omar, Director of AFDA, said in a meeting in Kabul that one of the goals of this department is to provide people with access to better quality food, and standard drugs.

Omar also said that in the near future, the export of medicine from Afghanistan to countries abroad will start soon. He said the authority has also developed a procedure that prevents the smuggling of medicines into the country.

AFDA officials added that over the past 18 months, they have issued licenses to 10 factories and destroyed more than 342 tons of low-quality food.

According to AFDA, during this period, there has been a serious fight against drug smuggling, and laboratories will also start working to separate halal from haram.

In addition, the Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce Qudratullah Jamal said at the meeting that Afghanistan now manufactures 50 different medicines and the hope is that this figure will total 100 by the end of the year. 

He has asked businessmen and investors to invest in the pharmaceutical industry in the country.

The people of Afghanistan meanwhile spend $500 million annually on medical treatment abroad due to the poor standard of healthcare across the country.

The Pharmaceutical Services Union in Herat says that medicines are still being smuggled into Afghanistan despite efforts made to clamp down on the practise.

According to union officials, these drugs are identifiable, so the price difference is noticeable in the markets.

Consumers meanwhile have complained that some pharmacies are charging exorbitant prices for medicines.

“Instead of cooperating with the people, it is noticed that the price of medicine has increased in pharmacies, or companies supply the same medicine under their own name,” Ahmad Fardin Jami, a resident of Herat, says.

“The Directorate of Public Health should have a regular plan to monitor pharmacies,” Abdul Wahid Mufaker, a resident of Herat, says.

The Union of Pharmaceutical Services in the western zone believes that the pharmaceutical market is still not fully controlled, that drug smuggling continues, and different companies import drugs with special marks, so the price difference in the drug market is noticeable.

“The laws are still not implemented 100%. The facilities of the relevant bodies are not so extensive to control fully. There are pharmaceutical unions all over Afghanistan, and this chain of unions controls the market to some extent, but the unions are not executive offices,” Abdul Karim Shirzad, the head of the Pharmaceutical Services Union in western zone, says.

However, the Public Health Directorate emphasized that serious actions have been taken against those who overcharged or had license issues.

“The Public Health Directorate has always matched the documents that the drug company bought with the price it sells in its monitoring programs, but we also witnessed cases where violations indicating instances of overcharging have taken place,” Mohammad Asif Kabir, Deputy Director of Public Health in Herat, says.

Some medicine sellers say that prices in the global markets are changing.

“Currently, the drugs that are sold in the market are original and high-quality drugs from reputable international companies,” Fereydoun Tokhi, the lawyer of the Pharmacists Association of Herat city, says.

“There are two arguments here, one is that people say that the drug has become expensive. The next is that if we consider globally, raw materials have become expensive all over the world,” Khalid Ahmad Ghafouri, a drug importer, says.

There are hundreds of pharmacies and drug importing companies in Herat, and the issue of price difference has always been a serious problem for the people.