Old system hampers Iraqi health care

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Old system hampers Iraqi health care
By Heath Druzin, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, October 19, 2008

KIRKUK, Iraq — Parents sit on the floor cradling sick infants in the jammed hallways of Kirkuk province’s only pediatric hospital. Half-disrobed patients are examined in front of open doors in rooms with no curtains, privacy a luxury reserved for expensive private hospitals. Some children must wait days for treatment, depending on the severity of their illness, one of the hospital’s harried pediatricians explains to members of the Kirkuk Provincial Reconstruction Team.

In another corner of town, while walking the hallways of a rehabilitation hospital for disabled Iraqis, hospital administrators tell the PRT members their doctors are swamped, seeing patients nonstop all day. They need more money and a near tripling of their staff.

The rehabilitation rooms, however, are nearly vacant, as is the hospital’s large cafeteria, and many pieces of equipment, which the administrators said were bought with U.S. aid money, are still in unopened plastic wrappers. During the unannounced visit, reconstruction team members found only two patients.

Asked where all the patients had gone, the hospital’s assistant director, Faldhil Salih said, "They come in the morning and then go."

A twin epidemic of scant resources and lack of accountability has left the health-care system in Kirkuk province, and much of Iraq, in shambles, and a group of soldiers and civilians from the reconstruction team have been working for nearly a year to improve access and treatment.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=58240