To get treated here you first have to buy your own drugs.

Dr Ahmed Shah Shukuman, Hospital Director

Ministers in the interim government are already drawing up impressive shopping lists, and expectation among ordinary people is understandably high.

One important area that is desperately in need of reconstruction is the Afghan health service.

At Kabul's newly reopened Jamhuriat Hospital, the sound of TB victims coughing fills the wards. Less serious and more easily treatable diseases are also rife.

But without even basics like thermometers, stethoscopes and syringes, the care here can only be rudimentary.

Missing equipment

Hospital director Dr Ahmed Shah Shukuman can think of a lot of ways he could spend some of what the donors' conference in Tokyo might offer.

"I want to tell you about the laboratory problem, about the x-ray problem, about the equipment, about the surgical instruments, about the blood bank, about all kinds of problems because the hospital was closed for five year," he says.

"The people who are patients now are those lucky enough to have cash of their own because to get treated here you first have to buy your own drugs."

The women's ward has been reopened

About 99% of the medicines and surgical materials used here were purchased by patients at the local bazaar.

Dr Steve Mannion first came to the hospital as a young British surgeon a decade ago. He has returned now to write a report for the Conflict Recovery Centre of University College London.

"(The hospital) was short of resources then," he says. "But it's now even shorter of resources. There are great problems with the infrastructure of the hospital - the plumbing isn't working, the electricity is not good.

"They've also got problems with staffing. I'm pleased to see that the female ward is now reopened after being shut for a long time and indeed some female staff have returned to the hospital. It's a very big step forward in terms of access to healthcare for the female members of the population."

Medical Institute

Just across the city is the shattered shell of what should be another cornerstone of the Afghan health system.

The main lecture hall of the Afghan Medical Institute once trained 1,000 students a year to be doctors. But under the Taleban there was no proper medical teaching at all.

The lecture hall is now a complete wreck. The seats for the students are falling apart, there are no windows, there is no heating - nothing much at all it seems.

Sharif Adin has been trying to study general medicine here for the past six years.

It's extremely important that Afghanistan takes responsibility for its own medical care in future.

Dr Steve Mannion

"In the days of the Taleban most of our teachers ran away abroad because they weren't allowed to do a proper job," he says.

"So we didn't get any real lectures and we couldn't get any medical practice with real patients either. And that's the way things still are at the school now."

In addition to trying to generate funds for his old Kabul hospital, Dr Mannion will be asking the British government to direct some of the $300m it has pledged to Afghanistan to the medical school.

"I think it's extremely important that Afghanistan takes responsibility for its own medical care in future," he says.

Lost talent

For now, there are no new medical staff coming through training. And Afghanistan has lost many others, either to jobs abroad or other work inside the country.

Some doctors and nurses have abandoned their medical careers to become dealers at the local money changing market.

Nasir, an eye surgeon, is currently working instead as an administrator with an international organisation. It actually pays him.

"Believe me," he says, "when I'm coming in the morning in our office I'm just dreaming about going to a hospital and doing surgery, which is in my heart.

"But unfortunately I prefer to feed my family rather than to follow my career."

"I do know that Afghanistan needs people like me. But who will solve my problem?"

It is a problem that almost everyone shares as the people of Afghanistan look hopefully to the West to turn its promise of better days into cash here on the ground.