Ambitious U.S. hospital project in Afghanistan faces failure --- (Reuters) - An ambitious U.S.-funded project to build hospitals in Afghanistan has run into the ground, with the largest hospital ever planned in the country unlikely to open in full, U.S. and Afghan officials said. -- The $60 million project by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) started in 2008 and aimed to meet the medical needs of over two million Afghans by 2009. -- Five years on, not one of the healthcare centers built under the project is open. The biggest, 100-bed hospital in eastern Paktia province is unfinished and may never open, according to Reuters interviews with U.S. and Afghan officials. -- Paktia public health director Baz Mohammad Shirzad said even if completed, the new facility is far too big for the local authorities to handle because there were not enough doctors and other staff to operate such a big hospital. -- "With current possibilities, we are only able to run 30 beds," he said. -- Paktia public health director Baz Mohammad Shirzad said even if completed, the new facility is far too big for the local authorities to handle because there were not enough doctors and other staff to operate such a big hospital. -- "A health center that exists is not the same as one that is used or that actually functions," Doctors Without Borders said in a report last week. -- The aid group said access to healthcare remains as dire as before the arrival in 2001 of U.S.-led forces that ousted the extremist Taliban from power. -- "The story about healthcare risks being skewed by the persistent efforts of donors, the international community and the government to show peace dividends," it said. -- USAID confirmed none of the healthcare facilities was in use, but said many other structures in education, healthcare and government had been completed on time. -- "USAID is proud to have delivered hundreds of new public service structures to the Afghan people," said a USAID spokesman, adding that the hospital would be ready in June. -- Western powers have poured billions of aid dollars into Afghanistan as a way to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Afghans and are keen to project an image of success as foreign troops withdraw from the country this year. - MOre, at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/05/us-afghanistan-aid-idUSBREA2411720140305