BAGHDAD, 28 January (IRIN) - Hospitals and Primary Health Care Centres (PHCC) in Baghdad are facing a major crisis as a result of lack security and a shortage of medicine, equipment and specialised staff, say health specialists.
"A major problem affecting
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 have recently left Iraq and hundreds have been killed. Medical staff are often considered soft targets by kidnappers."
~snip~
"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.
more: http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/fa26d3099c3bc626876acd04fa670ab0.htm
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