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IRAQ: Medical Care At Last, At a Price
By Dahr Jamail
BAGHDAD, Mar 6 (IPS) - Prompt medical care is at last on offer in Iraq, for those who can find the dollars
for it.
"Why would I want to go to government-run hospitals where there is no care,
no functioning instruments, long lines, and in the end the same doctor who
treats you there can treat you at a private hospital," says Mohammed Abbas,
35, an employee at Iraq's Ministry of Oil.
Abbas, speaking at the private Saint Raphael Hospital in the Karrada area of
Baghdad, wanted treatment on time, and was prepared to pay for it. Like him,
many are coughing up money for private treatment. When they have money,
that is, in an economy with more than 50 percent unemployment.
For medical care, many scramble to find money somehow. "It is a catastrophe
at the government-run hospitals," says Hayder Abud, 30, at the private
hospital for a check-up. "When you finally get a doctor to see you there, they
are so rushed and sleep deprived, you can't be sure you are getting proper
treatment."
Most treatment at government hospitals is free. Getting an x-ray at a private
hospital may cost 40 dollars. But at a private hospital the job can get done on
time.
"Iraq's Ministry of Health is struggling," said Khaled, administrative manager
at the Saint Raphael Hospital, requesting that his last name not be used. "We
have had problems with the Ministry of Health because they are angry at us
for treating so many more people nowadays."
The state medical system is on its knees. It was one of the best in the region
before the U.N.-backed economic sanctions for more than 12 years, followed
by the U.S.-led invasion and occupation.
Government hospitals are short of doctors. A small increase in pay over the
last three years has lured some doctors back, but what they pay cannot match
income in the private sector.
On average, a general practitioner in a government hospital earns about 300
dollars a month; a private hospital pays twice or three times that much. More
and more doctors are shifting away from government hospitals.
"I and my family were unable to live on the pay I earned at a government
hospital," says Dr. Kubayir Abbas, 34, an anaesthetist. "So I decided to come
over to the private sector instead, and now it is much better."
Dr. Shakir Mahmood Al-Robaei, another anaesthetist, said "it's better for us
to work here than in the public sector. We earn more money, it is safer, and
we don't have to worry about having the right equipment and supplies. When
I worked in the public sector, we were short of everything most of the time."
And so government hospitals continue to run short of doctors, while some
private hospitals have a surplus. What has improved since 2007 is that
violence against doctors, and even against patients who attend certain
hospitals, has dropped notably.
Government hospitals also lack basic supplies such as gauze, rubber gloves,
clean needles, surgical instruments and drugs for anaesthesia. Non-medical
basics such as clean bedding, disinfectants and air-conditioning are often
lacking, even in the largest medical complex in the country, the Baghdad
Medical City. Iraqis have for years had to buy their own medicines and even
oxygen supplies on the expensive black market.
Corruption within the Ministry of Health, and the near total lack of
reconstruction that was promised by the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority
in the first year of the occupation have left Iraq's healthcare system depleted
of resources.
A report 'Rehabilitation Under Fire' released last year by the health
organisation Medcat said Iraq has only around 9,000 doctors, after most fled
the country. That gives a ratio of six doctors for every 10,000 people. The
ratio in Britain is 23 to 10,000.
Given the crisis in government medical care, the business of private hospitals
is booming. Raphael hospital, which currently has 35 beds and sees on
average over 1,000 patients a day, will soon expand to 90 beds and increase
its staff.
Dr. Rhamis Mukhtar, the only surgeon for morbid obesity in Iraq, has been
working at this private hospital since 2000, while also working at a state
hospital. "I'm thinking of moving here full time," he said. "There are much
better supplies, services, and overall care for the patient. This centre is the
best for laproscopic surgery in the country."
For complicated emergency cases, government hospitals are still the best, Dr.
Mukhtar said. They have special equipment most smaller private hospitals
lack. It has to get very bad for someone before they can hope to get the best
out of a government hospital. (END/2009)
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