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Indira Gandhi was the first partner hospital for HPIC in Kabul and has since won a 2012 city-wide completion for best pharmaceutical management, a prize hospital management attribute to the work done in partnership with HPIC. Founded in 1966 with assistance from the Indian government this centrally located hospital is the largest children’s hospital in Kabul.
There are 300 – 350 operational beds in the hospital, but the facility often has to deal with overcrowding and it is not unusual for there to be over 500 patients in the various wards. When overcrowding becomes an issue, small children and babies are often forced to share a bed.
The facility’s busiest season is winter when they are inundated with victims of acute respiratory infections such as pneumonia and bronchitis, and in the summer they treat many cases of CCD (chronic diarrhoea diseases) sepsis, victims of road accidents, burns and fractures.
The hospital also has many other areas of expertise including orthopaedic surgery, treating malnutrition, and a ward specializing in care for premature infants. IGCH is one of the most highly respected children’s hospitals in Afghanistan and patients come from all corners of the country, often on foot, to seek treatment at the facility.
The hospital is in a particularly busy and dangerous area of Kabul as the NATO base and many foreign embassies are nearby, both of which are favoured targets for Taliban attacks. In the spring of 2012 the hospital was damaged by a bomb intended for the nearby NATO military hospital. The facility has since built 12 foot tall blast walls to protect the patients, the hospital, and the families who wait outside for news of their children.
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