U.S. govt. to build 143 clinics in Iraq

[kskiska]

WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Contracts have been finalized for the building of 142 primary healthcare clinics in Iraq, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Friday.

The total contract cost of the clinics, which are each expected to treat 40,000 to 100,000 patients per year, is $185 million. Funding will be taken from the $18.4 billion Congress appropriated for the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund.

The clinics have a modular design that includes six examination rooms, a pharmacy, two dental examination rooms and X-ray facilities.

Once built, each clinic will receive three months of support from the U.S. army, including medical supplies, office equipment and furniture, before they are turned over to the Iraqi Ministry of Health.

more…
http://www.upi.com/HealthBusiness/view.php?StoryID=20060908-024437-2625r

[sarcasmo]

1. 18.4 Billion, How many would that insure in this Country.

[Tellurian]

30. More like clinics' would become Religious Outposts

for people like Billy Graham and his son.

I read something some time ago. When Bush announced, Mission Accomplished, Graham jr, was packed up and ready to move into Iraq with a slew of missionary's. Is it a good idea to try to convert Muslims to Christianity when the Republican Christians make no secret of saying Muslims are evil and need to be cleansed from the US?

[eccles12]

33. At one time Saddam had one of the best healthcare systems in ME.

Free....all the docs have fled and the sanctions placed real hardships on medical supplies and equipment. Iraqi women were a big part of the system too. We not only destroy infrastructure we also destroy history.

[Deja Q]

2. Does all this qualify as socialistic health care?

:shrug:

Regardless of nitpicking, it's a terrific thing to do. I just wish America would do more for Americans like this...

[wurzel]

3. Are these the same as they are building in New Orleans? n/t

[The_Casual_Observer]

6. No, they couldn't be. You can't build something the same as

something that doesn't exist.

[wurzel]

10. You can if you are the Bush administration.

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. Well, there's that!

:toast:

[Wilber_Stool]

4. We'll fill them up too..n/t

[babylonsister]

5. Sure doesn't sound like we're leaving anytime soon. And let

me take a wild guess; Halliburton got the contract?

[Monkeyman]

7. Dam and close health care clinics for veterans

Why to support the troops and vets asswipes

[Joanne98]

8. Free health for Iraqis. OOPS! Just in time to enrage the voters!

[JeffR]

9. There's MUCH more to this story:

Check out this item from the Washington Post, April 3, 2006:

U.S. Plan to Build Iraq Clinics Falters
Contractor Will Try to Finish 20 of 142 Sites

By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 3, 2006; Page A01

BAGHDAD -- A reconstruction contract for the building of 142 primary health centers across Iraq is running out of money, after two years and roughly $200 million, with no more than 20 clinics now expected to be completed, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says.

The contract, awarded to U.S. construction giant Parsons Inc. in the flush, early days of reconstruction in Iraq, was expected to lay the foundation of a modern health care system for the country, putting quality medical care within reach of all Iraqis.

Parsons, according to the Corps, will walk away from more than 120 clinics that on average are two-thirds finished. Auditors say the project serves as a warning for other U.S. reconstruction efforts due to be completed this year.

Brig. Gen. William McCoy, the Army Corps commander overseeing reconstruction in Iraq, said he still hoped to complete all 142 clinics as promised and was seeking emergency funds from the U.S. military and foreign donors. "I'm fairly confident," McCoy said.

More at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/02/AR2006040201209.html

This is just more bad news dressed up as good news.

[Robbien]

17. So this is the second time we are funding these clinics

Incompetence and corruption of defense contractors walked off with the funding the first time around.

[rocktivity]

20. Why can't the Iraqis build them?

They need jobs. And they managed to build Saddam's palaces without foreign help. Or am I being too sensible again?

:headbang:
rocknation

[JeffR]

21. If it were left to Iraqis

where would Bush's crooked corporate pals get their rake-offs?

[oblivious]

25. Iraqis did build them according to the article in Post 9.

Parsons subcontracted the clinics to four main Iraqi companies, which often hired local firms to do the actual construction, creating several tiers of overhead costs.

[oblivious]

24. That's an unbelievable story.

In 2003, 300 primary-care clinics were planned.

The contract was awarded to Parsons on a cost-plus basis.

In 2005 it was scaled back to 142 clinics by year end, an extended deadline.

Only 6 were completed by January, 2006.

So the Corps of Engineers gave Parsons a new deal where they could leave the project in April but had to try to complete 14 clinics.

120 clinics are on average 2/3 finished.

And Parsons didn't even do anything. They subcontracted what little work they did to Iraqi firms:

Parsons subcontracted the clinics to four main Iraqi companies, which often hired local firms to do the actual construction, creating several tiers of overhead costs.

What a disgusting carpetbagger. $200 million for 6 clinics that it likely paid Iraqi contractors less than a million to build.

[RedEarth]

35. That's exactly what I thought of when I read the op....these clinics

were supposed to have been built a long time ago.

[serryjw]

37. Thanks for posting

I was just going to go find the original article. So few will know that we funded this BEFORE!* is always consistant......don't get it right the first time...stay the course, refunded and give more money to his buddies to cover the '06 election

[JeffR]

11. Should have added to my post above:

That puts the cost of these chimerical clinics at roughly $385 million and counting. And guess who's paying for them?

[ninkasi]

19. It's sure not the wealthy

They pay people to find ways to avoid paying taxes.

[Nevernose]

13. Goddamned Socialists are going to destroy America! n/t

n/t

[Earth_First]

14. August 29, 2007: 12 of 142 medical facilities completed, CBO finds

This writing of the headlines verbatim 12 months in advance really has become shooting fish in a barrell...

[pat_k]

15. Without security, you don't build -- you re-build, and re-build, and . . .

If you rebuild a clinic ten times, have you built one clinic or ten?

Safety first.

Our armed services have been misused as a substitute for diplomacy, over-extended to the point of insanity, unequipped for the guerrilla warfare and death squads they face, untrained for the kind of policing and outreach . . . .

The fantasies spun by the fascist in the WH have created a reality in which is is impossible for Americans to work in concert with Iraqis to provide even minimal safety to public.

If you have a leak in your roof, you'll make a mess of it if you just keep spackling after ever rain.

Providing security is beyond the capabilities of the resources the WH sent to "do the job." Without security, Iraqi's cannot rebuild (with or without our help). Without infrastructure, unrest grows. . .

There is a reason they call it a quagmire.

[rodeodance]

16. 18 B pumped into neighborhood clinics in the US would go a long way

to ensuring basic health care. selfish i know, but....

[HuffleClaw]

18. "medical supplies, office equipment and furniture"

= a bottle of aspirin, some paper and pencil crayons, and patio furniture?

[FormerOstrich]

22. Why didn't we do this INSTEAD of war....

I doubt Saddam would have stopped us if we sent the Army Corp of Engineers in to build these clinics.

That's what I've never been able to understand. For the amount of dollars we spend in warfare why can't we spend in killing them with kindness.

I understand that I am oversimplifying world view, but I do believe that we would have less enemies if we spent the money to build not destroy. It seems like so much of our aid is either military aid or just funneling money in where it gets skimmed off by a country's elite. Why couldn't we send in the Army Corp of Engineers to build? Work with the local population (education). No strings. No occupation. In and Out.

[juajen]

23. IIRC, Iraq had good medical care for all before our invasion.

Please, someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[pat_k]

27. Infant mortality doubled under sanctions.

The http://ddp-ext.worldbank.org/ext/GMIS/gdmis.do?siteId=2&contentId=Content_t13&menuId=LNAV01HOME1">under-five mortality is a good indicator of social economic conditions.

In 1989 the under-five rate in Iraq was 40 per 1000 (To compare, 1989/1990 rate in Egypt=100, Israel=10, Saudi Arabia=45).

By 2000 the under-five rate in Iraq had risen to 125

The "everybody knows" belief that it was misdirection of supplies, not the sanctions, that killed people, is challenged in an analysis from FAIR -- http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1025

. . .
What makes the Times' failure to report challenges to the State Department's spin all the more inexcusable is Sponeck's outspoken predecessor, Denis Halliday. Since his resignation from the U.N.'s humanitarian program in September 1998, Halliday has traveled around the United States giving speeches, writing articles, and issuing press releases about the sanctions. He has declared that "the some 150 U.N. observers throughout Iraq" who worked under him "have not reported any maldistribution of food and related items (cooking oil, soaps, etc.) during the entirety of the oil-for-food program," and that "for anyone to imply that the men and women of the Baghdad government, Ministry of Health in particular, deliberately withhold basic medicines from children in great need, is monstrous and says more about the unhealthy mind of the accusers than anything else." (Press release, 9/20/99)

Although Halliday has tried, with some limited success, to garner media attention for his views on the embargo, he has been completely ignored by Crossette and the New York Times. . .

Since the war of aggression Bush and Co. terrorized⁽¹⁾ the Americans into allowing, rates are harder to come by. Although it doesn't appear to be considered as strong an indicator of general conditions as the "under-five" rate, I came across the following on maternal death rates and newborn mortality at http://www.iraqanalysis.org/blog/:

. . .

In Iraq, years of conflict and international sanctions have damaged the health system and taken a serious toll on the well-being of mothers and babies. Maternal mortality has more than doubled, rising from 117 deaths per 100,000 live births in the late 1980s to the current 250. Infant and child mortality have also risen sharply. The current war has disrupted food distribution and damaged electrical, water and sewage systems, creating even more difficult conditions.

With newborn mortality at 59/1000, Iraq now has the highest newborn death rate of any middle income country, and the 4th highest of any country, equal with Sierra Leone. Only in Afghanistan and Liberia are more newborn babies lost.

---------------
(1) If 'mushroom clouds over our cities on 45 minutes" isn't a terroristic threat, I don't know what is.
We are trapped, and will keep sinking -- unless something big happens to change the ground (e.g., we Impeach Bush to open doors that are closed to the criminal regime.)

[sandnsea]

29. WHO report

Better than the last ten years, historically at a high-middle income country level.

http://www.who.int/features/2003/iraq/briefings/iraq_briefing_note/en/index3.html

[struggle4progress]

26. What's "modular design" mean? Left-over FEMA trailers?

Fresh coat of paint and new toilet bowls! Sewer system and connection not included ...

[krispos42]

28. ... but formaldahyde is! n/t

[ConcernedCanuk]

31. Guess the US is just about finished building them dozen or so bases . ..

.
.
.

Priorities ya know, . .

(sigh)

[Dem2theMax]

32. "U.S. govt. to build 143 clinics in Iraq"

and then bomb the hell out of them once done.


Edited because I can't spell early in the morning.

[area51]

34. healthcare

The Iraqis have certainly been fscked over by the Bush evil family empire, but we need heathcare too. We're the only industrialized country that doesn't offer some sort of single-payer healthcare, and this country considers healthcare a luxury, not a basic human right. :mad:

Try looking for a job sometime, & see how few employers are now offering any bennies, inc. healthcare, though any sane person would say that healthcare access ought not to be coupled to having a job.

[leesa]

36. Oh yeah, right after we get to those schools....