Poor security and shortages still hampering health care

Poor security and a shortage of medical equipment remain huge problems in Iraqi hospitals, international humanitarian organisations told IRIN on Wednesday. Premiere Urgence (PU), a French-based NGO involved in emergency rehabilitation in hospitals, told IRIN from Baghdad that security still remained the biggest impediment to delivering health care to needy Iraqis. "The number one problem is security in most of the hospitals in Baghdad," PU head of mission, Hakim Shpam, said. He added that medical supplies were also urgently needed in Iraq. "It is important to keep hospitals working, but laboratories have been looted. There is a shortage of equipment. The quality of water, the sanitation and lack of electricity are still a problem in the hospitals," he said. PU has been rehabilitating hospital buildings and repairing air-conditioning, electricity, masonry, roofing, water and drainage systems. The NGO has been operating in Iraq since July 1997. Another humanitarian organisation battling to get Iraqi hospitals up and running is the US-based NGO, the International Medical Corps (IMC). The NGO told IRIN from Baghdad that hospitals were operating at minimum capacity and there were many problem areas such as security. "In some hospitals security is better, in some it is worse. Some hospitals have officially received security forces, but others are still waiting for such services. But the overall situation is that hospitals are not secured, either for workers or patients. They are a target of criminal activities", the IMC programme coordinator for Iraq, Edi Cosic, said. CARE International told IRIN acceptable levels of security had yet to be established, and that this was having a very negative impact on the lives of ordinary Iraqis. Pat Carey, CARE USA's vice-president for programmes, said: "The longer this situation persists, the greater the risk to the success of the overall mission of rebuilding Iraq in the wake of regime change." Carey added that CARE saw similar problems in the Health Ministry, which remains devoid of leadership following the removal of all director generals from the ministry under the Coalition's 'de-Ba'athification' policy.