Iraqi medical crisis as doctors flee By John Leyne - BBC News, Amman 22 March 2007
For the people of Iraq, it may be the ultimate nightmare.
The ordeal continues for victims of Iraq's violence when they are taken to hospital. Most of the best medical staff have left after being targeted by insurgents. Many have fled the country just in the last few months. Drugs and equipment are almost non-existent. The notorious militias target patients inside hospitals, and doctors inside the health ministry. All this in a country that used to pride itself on the best medical services in the Middle East.
"You can reach a hospital easily, but there is no one to deal with you. And if they do deal with you they might come and kill you afterwards"
Iraqi doctor in Jordan Many of the doctors have gone to neighbouring Jordan. There seem to be many thousands here, all with graphic tales of the horrors they have witnessed. I walked into one Amman hospital, and immediately found four top Iraqi doctors, all British-trained and with world class skills. They did not want to be named, because they have families in Iraq, but their stories are riveting.
"By the time I left the hospital, there was a great shortage of medicines. Nursing staff was zero," said a professor of neurology. "In the college where I used to teach, five consultants were killed, assassinated. "Before I left, I was doing a tour with my resident staff. I looked at the ward, I looked at the beds, and I said in a very loud voice: 'This hospital is not good even for pets. No medicines, no bed linens, the smell is very bad. Sewage is out on the floor.'"
He said that at one point all the operating theatres in his hospital were shut down for three weeks because no oxygen cylinders were available. Another doctor described what happens to Iraqis who go to hospital for treatment after a bomb attack.
"You can reach a hospital easily, but there is no one to deal with you. And if they do deal with you they [militias] might come and kill you afterwards," he said. "Patients will leave because they are threatened.
"I left my hospital because two of my managers in that hospital were killed inside the hospital."
A third doctor said: "When there is a bomb and patients are coming, services are overwhelmed.
"There are very few skilled people to deal with the patients. So most of the wounded, the seriously wounded, will die."
'Kidnapping risk' Doctor after doctor described how armed gangs have now infiltrated not just the hospitals, but the health ministry itself. Another of this group of doctors, a top cardiologist, described how they met the Iraqi health minister in Amman recently. "He told us that he can't do anything, because he is sitting on one floor. The floor above him belongs to one of the militias, the floor below belongs to another militia. He can see people fighting inside his ministry."
"None of the doctors can go inside the ministry of health because he will be kidnapped," chipped in another of the doctors. "If they go in, they will not go out."
As for the billions of dollars spent on reconstruction, these doctors say they saw a little of it. But most was wasted on shoddy furniture and poor decorations. Some money has gone on high-tech machinery. But it is useless, say the doctors, because no one knows how to use it. They believe the equipment was only bought so that officials could siphon off part of the funds.
'Stolen medicines' As I left the doctors, I met an Iraqi patient waiting for treatment, a pharmacist. She described going into a filthy maternity ward in Iraq, with rats the size of cats. Although she was only trained as a pharmacist, she could see one of the expectant mothers needed her blood pressure tested. There was no doctor around, so she tried to help. But there was not even the equipment for that simple test. As for the other facilities, "there was some medication, but they were stolen by the assistant pharmacist," she said.
"They came back in the night and want to sell me the medication." Later I met the doctors again. They said that whatever horror stories they had told about the medical situation, however bad it sounded, it was actually worse.
< Message edited by azinorum -- 3/22/2007 5:17:40 PM >
I am defending the british government, but we have crisis in this country of the number of asylm seekers, especially Kurds. Hundreds of thousands of them came here without their families, without even speaking the language, and demand this and the other. I know some are in real trouble, but 95% of the rest think it is a free sex heaven, and expect that every british girl will be melting in their arms. They come here as Iraqi refugees not Kurdish, which made the problem even bigger, as they only allowed so many from every country. Some spent up to $9000 to get here, this sort of money they could live like kings in Iraq, especially in the north. They abandoned their homes, jobs, land, and family, and for what? They can't get jobs because they don't speak the language, they can't go anywhere because they are banned for the amount of trouble they have caused. I believe the number of Iraqis outside the country is around the 6.5 Million, but every day every week more and more escaping.
britain and usa should make much more effort to help this crisis. they invade iraq sio they must take most of the balme for this crisis. they must help jordan and syria at least with some big donation. when did the kurd u r speaking about go to the uk. before or after the war?
The Jordanian government is now stopping Iraqis from entering the country unless they carry residency or have valid medical papers proving they require treatment not currently available in Iraq. The only other option is now Syria and I'm hearing rumours that Damascus might also follow the Jordanian line by closing its borders to Iraqis unless they carry certain papers. The same already applies in the UAE and other Gulf States. The old song lyric "nowhere to run, nowhere to hide" is now every Iraqis reality.
many iraqi people living in amman complain 2 me how dificult for them here. 3 of the men working on our project in irbid r iraqi & will leave the co. next month because the resedncy and work permit will expire and jordan goverment will not give them new permit. they r sunni and worry about if they r deported backk to baghdad. there family is in egypt so it is very dificult for them. we aply for the permit again but i think there is no chance. poor iraq. look what hapening 2 it. i go to qatar 2morow and the engineer i will meet is also iraqi. i will ask him if he need workers for his co. but i think they cant acept iraqi worker only engineer. i will c. wish me luck.
Best of luck Mout. Let us know how you get on. In fact there is a UN office in Amman which is issuing political refugee documents to Iraqis as a show of support. I don't have the details on me but I'll send you them in another post.
i want the iraqis to stop trusting the arabs because the arabs they are bunch of slackers and only caring money from the iraqis, whenever the know you are iraqi nationality they will say (oh they have money) and pretending that they love the iraqis just for the sake for monay so they should stop trusting the arabs and especailly the countries from the badiyat al sham they care only for money from the iraqis.
i want the iraqis to stop trusting the arabs because the arabs they are bunch of slackers and only caring money from the iraqis, whenever the know you are iraqi nationality they will say (oh they have money) and pretending that they love the iraqis just for the sake for monay so they should stop trusting the arabs and especailly the countries from the badiyat al sham they care only for money from the iraqis.
Yes, Arab governments are all talk and no action. They couldn't organize a piss up in a brewery.
Latest miserable report issued by the Red Cross. Is it any wonder that some many Iraqis are seeking shelter elsewhere. Its getting worse by the day. Iraqis face 'immense' suffering The International Committee of the Red Cross says the situation for ordinary Iraqis is getting steadily worse. Four years after the US-led invasion, the ICRC says the conflict is inflicting immense suffering, and calls for greater protection of civilians. An Iraqi woman quoted in the report said people wanted help to collect bodies lining streets every morning. The ICRC still has a presence in Iraq despite the bombing of its Baghdad offices three and a half years ago.
In the report called Civilians Without protection - The Ever-worsening Crisis in Iraq, the Red Cross asked Iraqis what could be done to help them. The answer was a shock, says ICRC director of operations Pierre Kraehenbuehl.
"The suffering that Iraqi men, women and children are enduring today is unbearable and unacceptable," he said.
"The ICRC calls on all those who can influence the situation on the ground to act now to ensure that the lives of ordinary people are spared and protected. This is an obligation under international humanitarian law for both states and non-state actors."
The famously neutral International Red Cross will not blame anyone in particular for what it calls the current disastrous security situation, says the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva. The report makes it clear that nobody - including the Iraqi government and coalition forces - has done enough so far, our correspondent adds.
'Simply unbearable'
Red Cross workers asked Iraqi women about their lives.
"If there's anything that anybody could do that would really help us today would be to help us collect the bodies that line the streets in front of our homes every morning and that we find nobody dares to touch or remove after security reasons," one woman said.
Women found it "simply unbearable" to confront their children with them morning after morning as they tried to take them to school, the woman added. The Red Cross says every aspect of life in Iraq is getting worse - a trip to the market has become a matter of life and death.
"Once I was called to an explosion site," Saad, a humanitarian worker, is quoted as saying in the report. "There I saw a four-year-old boy sitting beside his mother's body, which had been decapitated by the explosion. He was talking to her, asking her what had happened. He had been taken out shopping by his mum."
The report also highlights the following problems:
Iraq's healthcare facilities face critical shortages of staff and supplies. Many doctors, nurses and patients no longer dare to go to hospitals and clinics because they are targeted or threatened
much of Iraq's vital water, sewage and electricity infrastructure is in a critical condition
food shortages have been reported in some areas and malnutrition is said to have increased
In a report also released on Wednesday, the charity Oxfam said the UK's ability to be a force for good in the world had been seriously damaged by the invasion of Iraq and other foreign policy decisions. And a report by the Oxford Research Group think tank said UK and US policy towards Iraq had "spawned new terror in the region".
Best of luck Mout. Let us know how you get on. In fact there is a UN office in Amman which is issuing political refugee documents to Iraqis as a show of support. I don't have the details on me but I'll send you them in another post.
hello azinorum. i will apreciate if u can send me the address of this un office pls. thank u.
ORIGINAL: Mout Ahmar hello azinorum. i will apreciate if u can send me the address of this un office pls. thank u.
I just sent an email to a friend who has all the details. Hopefully I'll have something by this evening. I'll post the address and other stuff on this forum so others can pass on to friends and relatives. Cheers.
hi azinorum. pls send the un contacts. i meet many iraqis who do not hear about this un program so it is very important becuase i promise to send to them. thank u
what do every one think about the new american decsision to acept 20.000 iraqi refugees to the usa. i think this is good but too litle 2 late. they must spend more for this problem becuase now all syria and jordan can not keep taking more & more iraqis without help. i hope uk, europe and midle east will help more.
I cut this numbers from the internet. this is how many iraqis are now not living in their own home.
I've written again to my friends by SMS and email. As soon as I receive their reply I'll post it on the forum. Sorry for the delay.
The attached is the UN list of Iraqi refugees in neighboring countries compiled by OCHA on the 17th April 2007. Those who prefer to read it in HTML format can do so by clicking the following link:
i think it is 8 million people are outside and turkey from what i know the last i asked a turkish person before long time it is 400000 iraqis in turkey, lebanon i think 300000 and more that's what i know from the past.
i hear that it is also 8 milion but this include iraq living outside for many years. nearly 2 milion r people who r living in iraq but have no home. i want 2 ask is this 2 milion familys or 2 milion persons?
do you the jordanians cares about iraqis no they never cared about them or any other arabic country.
what i c is the jordanian like iraqi but palestinian they do not. the taxi driver in amman they all love saddam. all taxi drivers are palestinian and all they complain about iraqis but always they say we love saddam hussien. the real jordanians i meet all have simpathy for what is happening top iraq. so my answer is yes. the jordanian like & care about iraqi people. but the palestinian is a nother story.
i forget 2 mention 2 sadiq. jordan is majority palestinian. i think it is 1 jordanian to 5 palestinian. now the iraqis also make a big % of the population. so jordan dos not have real power even in her own country. it is very dificult for jordanians becuase this is facts. what more can the jordanian people do? they r not a rich country and do not even have water but 4 its size jordan has prove by taking 700000 iraqis that they do care. but the number is now 2 big for the jordan economy, hospitals, medicin. they need help not criticizm.
Iraq is slipping further and further into third world status.
Millions in Iraq to get MMR jab BBC NEWS ONLINE - Friday, 20 April 2007 A major immunization campaign is to take place in Iraq in a bid to prevent an outbreak of measles.
The World Health Organization and Unicef are overseeing the work of 8,000 volunteers who aim to give up to 3.9 million children the MMR vaccine. The children, aged one to five, have missed out on their routine jabs because of the instability in Iraq. Health experts warn measles could kill up to 10% of infected children if an epidemic took hold.
While measles in countries like the UK is often perceived as a relatively harmless childhood illness, it kills more worldwide each year than any other disease which can be prevented by vaccination. Iraq's Ministry of Health is organising the two-week MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) immunisation campaign, which is also being funded by the European Commission. 'Window of opportunity'
Dr Naeema Al-Ghasser, the World Health Organization (WHO) representative for Iraq, said: "All children between 12-59 months everywhere in Iraq need to be immunised, even if they have had the vaccine before.
"The vaccine is safe and effective, and gives lifelong immunity against measles."
Roger Wright, Unicef special representative for Iraq added: "The timing of this MMR campaign is critical.
"This vaccine will certainly save many young lives and we are calling on everyone in Iraq to ensure vaccinators reach children safely over the next two weeks."
The campaign is part of Iraq's Measles Elimination Plan, which has so far reduced the incidence of measles cases nearly 20-fold - from 9,181 in 2004 to under 500 last year. However, the country's growing humanitarian crisis has added to the challenges, increasing the risks for vaccinators and making it harder to calculate numbers of children to immunise.
There is particular concern about reaching children in the most violent parts of Baghdad, Diyala and Anbar. Dr Al-Ghasser said: "We have a short window of opportunity to give children lifelong protection against a dangerous disease. This MMR campaign must proceed unhindered and unite everyone for children's sake."
Unicef recently called for increased funding for its work in Iraq. It says it urgently needs an initial $20m - of which only 11% has been received to date.
Finally an American newspaper calling for the US to stand up and face up to its responsibilities towards this tragedy. Unfortunately that newspaper is only the Minnesota Daily. No disrespect to them and thanks for the support but I would've been happier had this issue been highlighted in one of their national papers (NYT, Washington Post, Herald Tribune etc).
U.S. must help Iraqi refugee crisis The Minnesota Daily - April 26, 2007
The United States must take responsibility for the fate of Iraqi refugees.
As more and more Iraqis seek resettlement in neighboring Arab countries and the United States because of the war, the flight of the Iraqi refugees can no longer be ignored. Over the past year, the U.S. government has stressed the temporary nature of the Iraqi refugee situation claiming that most of the 1.5 million refugees will eventually be able to return home. It is time, however, for U.S. officials to accept that the instability in Iraq is not going away and is continually getting worse. It is not likely that the situation will be stable enough for the refugees to return home any time soon.
There has been a lot of back and forth between Washington and the United Nations over the refugee situation. The United States claims that until the United Nations determines the status of the refugees and decides which Iraqis need to be resettled, its hands are tied. This attitude is absolutely absurd. The United Nations currently lacks the funds to run such a massive screening endeavor.
The irony of the situation should not be lost either. We didn't need and respect the United Nations enough to go into Iraq with its approval, but we need them now to deal with the devastating mess we have caused. It is time for the United States to step up and accept responsibility for the disaster that has become Iraq. It is estimated that 50,000 refugees are fleeing Iraq every month, most of whom are seeking refuge in neighboring countries such as Syria and Jordan. These countries simply do not have the infrastructure to support such a massive influx of refugees. Whether it means we need to take in more Iraqi refugees or provide massive funding to those countries that are left with the burden of resettlement, we must step up.
Understandably, the encouragement of the resettlement of Iraqi refugees in the United States will be hard for the American government. It would be admitting failure. But since we are talking about the lives of millions of innocent people, perhaps it is time for the government to put its pride aside and admit that Iraq has become nothing more than a losing cause.
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