Doctors and nurses learn from Japanese training programme

Separate monitors show the breathing and vital signs of eight critical patients hooked up to oxygen and other machines at Medical City hospital in Adamiyah on the western side of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. There is a whispered discussion between the medical interns watching the patients before one decides to tell what to them seems to be some sort of secret. Of the five interns in the room, all know how to read the machines. But they complain they did not get to go on the month-long course, in which the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) sent more than a hundred doctors and nurses to Egypt. Even worse, they say, there aren't enough machines for all of the patients that need them. The eight respirators apparently serve Baghdad's population estimated at nearly six million people according to estimates. "We don't have enough experience or enough machines. We can only do the basics," Laythem Naji, an intern, told IRIN, his voice rising, irritated. "It exceeds our capacity to receive more patients." When medical experts couldn't come to Iraq because of the security situation in the volatile country, the JICA decided it would send medical staff outside, said Ihsan Alwan al-Sweidi, a programme officer for the aid agency. Officials wanted doctors and nurses to travel to Japan, but several doctors argued they should go to a country where Arabic was spoken, said Saaeb Gelani, a doctor who made the trip. "I said I'd like to learn medical procedures in an Arab country where the culture is similar, not Japan," Gelani said. "At first they rejected the idea, but then they understood what I was saying." JICA is responsible for the technical cooperation aspect of Japan's official development programmes. It provides technical cooperation aimed at the transfer of technology and knowledge that can help the socio-economic development countries in need. Plans for Iraq also include sending another one hundred doctors and nurses to Egypt in coming months, al-Sweidi said. Japanese officials currently instruct their Iraqi staff from offices in Amman, Jordan. "The kind of assistance we do is technical cooperation and bringing experts from other countries," al-Sweidi said. "But because of security problems, the experts cannot come here now." Because former president Saddam Hussein kept Iraqis from travelling, doctors have been cut off from learning the latest surgical techniques and training, Gelani said. Doctors learned laparoscopy techniques in Egypt, for example, or how to do surgery making small incisions and using more advanced cameras and tools. "They are doing many procedures that we don't know," said Gelani. "Nurses should upgrade their knowledge in intensive care nursing, for example. Actually, doctors should also get more training in intensive care." There aren't enough nurses for the number of patients in Iraq, only 12,000 for an estimated population of more than 26 million, according to Gelani. Much of the medical equipment in Iraq was stolen last year as US-led troops came into the country, he said. But at the same time, nurses felt like the training offered to them in Egypt was too basic, said Mona Nahab, head nurse at the Medical City hospital. Intensive care training was helpful, she said, adding that other training was too simple for nurses with so much experience - how to give an injection, for example, she explained. Egyptian nurses refused to let the Iraqi nurses touch the machines in the hospital, adding to the feeling of inferiority, she added. "When we returned, we taught our nurses about the intensive care unit (ICU)," Nahab told IRIN. "But you can see now, our ICU is not so well-equipped. We have equipment, but it is old," she added. The agency also sent workers from the Ministry of Communication for advanced telecommunications training in Japan. Other projects include sending officials from the electricity ministry to Jordan to learn more how to deal with Iraq's often-sabotaged power grid. Ministry of Planning staff will get a quick statistics course in Jordan. Ministry of Interior workers may also get a quick training course in Jordan, a plan still under negotiation. "These people have had little connection with foreign experiences," al-Sweidi said. "This is the best technical expertise we can offer them."