On Sunday, December 16, President Hamid Karzai came up with admission to fact that medical services are still poor in Afghanistan. Speaking at the conference 'Enhancing Medical Ethics in Afghanistan,' he said the health sector of Afghanistan had not any significant development in the last decade. The health sector of Afghanistan still suffers due to lack of professional doctors, quality medicines and research and development projects, although handsome amount of fund has been poured in the country by the international community.

Meanwhile, people with various kinds of diseases, who need special medical treatment, continue to suffer because of not having access to professional health services and are compelled to bear the trouble of travelling abroad - a measure that costs most them more than their savings of years. Each year, thousands of Afghans travel to neighboring and other countries of the world for seeking better medical treatments.

As an example, the health facilities being provided to mothers and children in Afghanistan are negligible and inadequate. If in Kabul the condition has undergone somewhat positive change, in other province of Afghanistan it is very concerning.

Afghanistan is one of the worst places to be a mother, with women having a life expectancy of 45 years — the world's lowest — and one of every 11 women dying in childbirth. One of every five children in the country does not live to age 5. By contrast, a typical Norwegian woman lives to be 83 years old, and just one in 175 will lose a child before his or her 5th birthday.

Medical services offered in the public hospitals are inadequate and are not according to standards in capital Kabul. One can easily judge the condition in hospitals located in province. Due to which, the hospitals in capital are overcrowded because of the influx of patients from across Afghanistan. The private hospitals too lack professional doctors, standard services and their charges are too high for a common Afghan to afford.

"Anyone who wishes to be a doctor must develop the sense of serving humans more than any other man," Karzai said. The purpose of establishing private hospitals must not be merely doing business. There should be more monitoring and control over both public and private hospitals. The government must pursue short to long term plans to standardize medical services in Afghanistan.