Baghdad hospitals in crisis as they lack security and drugs, say specialists

Hospitals and Primary Health Care Centres (PHCC) in Baghdad are facing a major crisis as a result of a lack of security and a shortage of medicine, equipment and specialised staff, say health specialists.

“A major problem affecting [Iraq’s] health sector is definitely the country’s desperate security situation,” said Nada Doumani, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

“Armed men storm the operating theatres forcing doctors to treat their own patients, as a priority. Some patients insist on keeping their arms and masks while being treated. This creates a traumatising situation for the doctors,” she said.

Doumani added that as a result of insecurity, more than half of the 34,000 registered doctors in Iraq had recently left the country and hundreds had been killed. "Medical staff are often considered soft targets by kidnappers,” she said. 

Ministry of Health officials said the number of doctors asking for prolonged unpaid leave was dramatically increasing.

“We are getting desperate with the number of doctors and pharmacists fleeing Iraq for security reasons or because the infrastructure is not offering them the necessary equipment and they lack security. We have urged them to assist in rebuilding our country but their response has not been positive. Instead, more professionals leave Iraq every day,” said a spokesperson at the Ministry of Health who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In addition to insecurity, the health sector has also been hit by a shortage of basic and more sophisticated medical items.

“The hospitals have not been maintained since the 1990s and very little investment has been put into the health sector,” said Doumani.

Baghdad has 13 main hospitals in different areas of the city – all with emergency departments. It also has about 45 big PHCCs. Of the hospitals, only one, the Medical Centre City, is fully equipped.

Ministry of Health officials told IRIN that only one Magnetic Resonance machine (used in detecting structural abnormalities of the body) is working in the whole of Baghdad and the other three machines available in the city are in urgent need of repair.

“Our hospital is the main centre for emergencies in Baghdad and most of our equipment is not functioning. These include devices for tomography and ultrasonography [ultrasound-based diagnostic imaging] which are essential for victims of accidents and explosions who are the most common patients these days,” said Dr Ibraheem Maroof at Yarmouk Hospital.

“At present we don’t have needles to give injections or painkillers for patients who have sustained injuries caused in explosions or patients with chronic heart attacks,” Marouf added.

The consequences for patients are dire.

“My wife died three months ago because of a shortage of medicine at the hospitals and because I couldn’t afford to buy her the required medicines from private pharmacies. We are a poor family and my salary is sometimes not enough to buy even food for my children. Today, my daughter is at the hospital in need of urgent help and medicine,” said Abu Zaineb, 42, a rubbish collector in Baghdad.

“I just pray that she doesn’t become the next victim of our country’s deteriorated health situation. People are dying every day from violence but now from a bad health system too,” Abu Zaineb added.

Some of the hospitals’ infrastructure, especially the sewage and water systems, have also deteriorated and all hospitals in the city are in dire need of potable water.

“Our sewage system is not working properly and sometimes the bad odour seeps through into the patients’ room. In the coming summer, the situation will get much worse if the central government does not take action,” said Dr Fauzi Ali, a cardiologist at Kadhmiyah Hospital.

as/ar/ed