IRAQI HOSPITALS AILING UNDER
OCCUPATION
|
Issued and endorsed by:
www.brusselstribunal.org www.intal.be www.eltaller.org Geneeskunde Voor de Derde
Wereld * Also: Asian
Women’s Human Rights Council, Association of Humanitarian
Lawyers, SOS Iraq |
* This report is submitted as evidence to the Jury of conscience during the
culminating session of the World Tribunal on Iraq,
I. INTRODUCTION
II. THE STUDY
III. SUMMARY
OF FINDINGS
IV. CASE
STUDIES
A. Equipment and Medicine Shortages
B. US
Military Interfering With Medical Care
C. Lack of
Water and Electricity Affecting Medical Care
VI. BRAIN DRAIN
VII. RECONSTRUCTION CONTRACT WORK IN LIMBO
VIII. CONCLUSIONS
IX. SECTIONS OF GENEVA CONVENTIONS I, III AND IV OF 1949, RELEVANT TO
HEALTH RIGHTS AND HEALTH CARE
Although the Iraq Ministry of Health claims its independence and has
received promises of over $1 billion of US funding, hospitals in
During
the 1990s, medical supplies and equipment were constantly in short supply
because of the sanctions against
In
April 2004, an International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) report stated
that hospitals in
Ample testimony
from medical practitioners in the interim in fact confirms this crisis. A
general practitioner at the prosthetics workshop at
Dr.
Qasim al-Nuwesri, the chief manager at Chuwader General Hospital, one of two
hospitals in the sprawling slum area of Sadr City, Baghdad, an area of nearly 2
million people, added that there, too, was a shortage of most supplies and,
most critically, of ambulances. But for his hospital, the lack of potable water
was the major problem. “Of course we have typhoid, cholera, kidney
stones…but we now even have the very rare Hepatitis Type-E…and it has become
common in our area,” said al-Nuwesri, while adding that they never faced these
problems prior to the invasion of 2003.[3]
Chuwader
hospital needs at least 2000 liters of water per day to function with basic
sterilization practices. According to Dr. al-Nuwesri, they received 15% of this
amount. “The rest of the water is contaminated and causing problems, as are the
electricity cuts,” added al-Nuwesri, “Without electricity our instruments in
the operating room cannot work and we have no pumps to bring us water.”[4]
In November,
shortly after razing
Many doctors in
According to Agence
France-Presse, the former ambassador of Iraq Paul Bremer admitted that the
US led coalition spending on the Iraqi Health system was inadequate. “It’s not
nearly enough to cover the needs in the healthcare field,” said Bremer when
referring to the amount of money the coalition was spending for the healthcare
system in occupied
When asked if
his hospital had received assistance from the
At
International
aid has been in short supply due primarily to the horrendous security situation
in Iraq After the UN headquarters was bombed in Baghdad in August 2003, killing
20 people, aid agencies and non-governmental organizations either reduced their
staffing or pulled out entirely.
Dr. Amer Al
Khuzaie, the Deputy Minister of Health of Iraq, blamed the medicine and
equipment shortages on the US-led Coalition’s failure to provide funds
requested by the Ministry of Health.[12]
“We have
requested over $500 million for equipment and only have $300 million of this
amount promised,” he said, “Yet we still only have promises.”[13]
According to The New York Times, “of
the $18.4 billion Congress approved last fall, only about $600 million has
actually been paid out. Billions more have been designated for giant projects
still in the planning stage. Part of the blame rests with the Pentagon's
planning failures and the occupation authority's reluctance to consult
qualified Iraqis. Instead, the administration brought in American defense contractors
who had little clue about what was most urgently needed or how to handle the
unfamiliar and highly insecure climate.”[14]
The World Health
Organization (WHO) last year warned of a health emergency in
From April, 2004 through January, 2005,
the author and his colleague surveyed 13 hospitals in
Hospitals
surveyed:
Arabic
Children’s Hospital,
Early in 2004,
prior to this report, Dr. Geert Van Moorter, a Belgian M.D., conducted a
fact-finding mission to
Findings
in this report suggest that Dr. Van Moorter’s statement remains true today,
albeit with the continued deterioration of equipment, supplies, and staffing,
further complicated by an astronomical increase in patients due to the violent
nature of the occupation of
This
report further provides an overview of the situation afflicting the hospitals
in
The current model in
