Further upgrades planned for Baghdad hospital (09/09/04)

Melted plastic tubing and heat warped glass vials will soon be a thing of the past for doctors and nurses at Ibn Sina Hospital, the busiest medical facility in Iraq and one of only three Level III trauma centres in the country. The reprieve comes courtesy of the first climate-controlled medical storage facility in Iraq, which opened Sunday only metres from the front door of the hospital. The new warehouse will provide an end to the destructive heat, with enough air-conditioned storage space to store tons of medical supplies to treat the county’s most seriously wounded soldiers and civilians.

Many renovations are planned for rebuilding hospitals in Baghdad

“Before all of our materials were packed into a number of small hot warehouses throughout the area; it was so hot that glass tubes would actually melt,” said Myissha Tompkins, the medical supply specialist for the hospital. “The desert heat and the small compact storage areas made it difficult to provide the critical supplies our customers need, but this new facility has made it much easier.”

A centralised system of neatly numbered shelves loaded from floor to ceiling with brown and blue boxes of medical supplies recently replaced the rows of plastic-wrapped, double-stacked boxes scattered among warehouses across Baghdad.

The renovation of the building began in June when more than 40 Iraqi labourers began transforming the tattered, neglected building into a modern facility capable of storing enough supplies to service the monthly patient load at the hospital that routinely exceeds 1,000.

Doors and windows were replaced, walls were painted both inside and outside and air conditioners were installed to transform the once dilapidated building into a modern 2,000 square-foot medical storage building. “We in Iraq have never had anything like this before,” said one of the Iraqi contractors leading the refurbishment. “We do not have large hospitals and all the modern medicines to treat our sick and injured; now we have a facility and a place to store the medicine.”

The building, which only months ago stood as a shell of broken concrete and rubble, is the first of many renovations planned for bettering the hospital. Construction of a sterilisation room on top of the hospital’s operating room is currently underway and is slated for completion in October. Additional storage, widened electronic doors and upgraded elevators are also on the renovation plans for the calendar year.

Source: USACE