Iraq healthcare in disarray, report says (doctors fleeing, child mortality soaring)

[Barrett808]

Source: Reuters

Iraq healthcare in disarray, report says
By Luke Baker

LONDON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Iraq's healthcare is in disarray with doctors and nurses fleeing abroad and child death rates soaring, according to a report on Wednesday.

Up to 75 percent of Iraq's doctors, pharmacists and nurses have left their jobs since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. More than half of those have emigrated, the report by health organisation Medact said.

"The health system is in disarray, not only because of the underlying security, but owing to the lack of an institutional framework, huge staff shortages, intermittent electricity, unsafe water supply and frequent violations of medical neutrality," the report, "Rehabilitation Under Fire", said.

Iraq has only around 9,000 doctors, giving a ratio of six doctors to every 10,000 people. By comparison, the ratio in Britain is 23 to every 10,000.

...

Of more than $18 billion assigned to Iraq's reconstruction, just 4 percent was set aside for healthcare.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L16828588.htm

[Bonobo]

1. "Dissaray"? That describes the situation in the US.

I think the situation in Iraq is just a wee bit more serious than "dissaray", don't you?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

4. Full scale disaster is more like it.

From the article;

Death rates among children under five are now nearing those in sub-Saharan Africa, despite Iraq being a relatively wealthy, well-resourced and educated country. Eight million Iraqis are in need of emergency aid, the report said.

However, I admit this clip of the article below is reminiscent of American health care.

Because of a U.S. desire for privatization, a decision was also taken to rewrite the national formulary, the list of drugs supplied by the Iraqi Health Ministry.

This was a costly and inefficient process that delivered nothing to patients, Medact said.

[yurbud]

2. If you read THE SHOCK DOCTRINE, the same thing happened in Poland, Russia, South Africa...

it's a standard feature of neoliberalism--corporate profits go up, but so do preventable diseases and infant mortality. The only thing that goes down is life expectancy.

[InkAddict]

3. No wonder it's free - It's now NON-EXISTANT!

Good goin' *criminal.

[gratuitous]

5. Man, that surge is just working everywhere, isn't it?

Can you imagine the competition medical schools are engaged in to recruit good students? It's like being able to write your own ticket and choose the most lucrative specialty for young Iraqis! All hail the Holy Surge and its prophet, George W. Bush.

[rockybelt]

6. And our health care system is what? nt

[Plucketeer]

7. Ahhhhhhhh.... Say Dub...

"You break it - you own it." Thing is, we (your subjects) don't wanna pay for it.

[tanyev]

8. Now why do all those people want to leave when things are getting so much better?

Ungrateful.



:sarcasm:

[DeepModem Mom]

9. K&R

[LynnTheDem]

10. Funny, this never happened under Saddam Hussein.