There is increasing concern over the state of the healthcare system in Iraq, following 13 years of economic sanctions and the subsequent looting of hospitals and clinics following the war and the ongoing disruptions in the delivery of supplies and equipment. “The Iraqi healthcare system was one of the most advanced of its kind in the 1970s and 1980s,” says William Aaronson, associate professor of healthcare management at The Fox School, a US business school. “But the current war, coupled with the 1990 UN-imposed sanctions, the 1991 Gulf War and subsequent periods of lawlessness and looting, have left the healthcare system in total shambles. It has been set back almost 50 years.”
The mass exodus of healthcare professionals, limited access to medical information and a declining standard of living have not helped matters either, Aaronson says. He believes that in addition to humanitarian donations of medical equipment, the real solution will be the development of community-based primary healthcare. “This will have the greatest impact on the reversal of negative health trends in the population,” he said. During and immediately after the recent conflict, some 12 per cent of hospitals were partially damaged, while seven per cent were looted. More than 30 per cent of the facilities that provided family planning services were destroyed. The country’s two major public health laboratories, in Baghdad and in Basra, were destroyed.
Medical facilities have not received significant investment in technology since the 1970s and it is estimated that 65 per cent of the equipment in hospitals and health centres is non-functional. Last year, Iraq spent just $16 million on its healthcare system. Investors in the country’s healthcare system say they are committed to halving maternal and child mortality rates within two years, a target which will fall short should investment in infrastructure and supply of key equipment, medicines and vaccines, and recruitment and training of healthcare workers not be forthcoming.
Source: The Daily Star
