Iraqi medical centers: A litany of evident horrors

It is a well known fact that the 'time' is a great destroyer. Iraq once - right through the 1980s - considered as the premier destination for medical care in the Middle East has now turned into a graveyard for patients (courtesy: US-led war) seeking health checks, for many of them die due to the lack of proper medical aid.

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To add to the woes, the well-meaning West has done nothing whatsoever to alleviate the situation. This, despite all the conventions, which lay down the ethics for treatment of the populace afflicted by the horrors of war. The Geneva conventions (in particular) require that the sick and wounded be treated with 'particular protection and respect.'

Does this (the conditions in Iraq) reflect West's biasness against the people in the Middle-East? It seems so, because the situation was quite different during the American foray in Vietnam, some two decades back.

In the early stages of the Vietnam War, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) had initiated an adequate health care system for the civilians. This system continued to operate quite effectively even during the prime of the war. Compare this to the conditions in Iraq and one can easily perceive the stark differences.

A complete failure of American policy

The plight of Iraqi civilians is a reminder of the fact that there has long been a failure to respect their lives and dignity and the credit first goes to the extended autocratic rule of Saddam Hussein and more recently to the US-led War on Iraq. However, the Gulf War and the consequent years of International trade sanctions have also undermined Iraqi health care in the 1990s, but the ongoing US-led 'war on terror' has virtually tarnished the health services, formerly regarded as the pride of nation. Since the invasion, electricity shortages, inadequate drinking water, failing health services and towering inflation have deteriorated the living conditions in Iraq.

• According to a government approximation - almost 70% of critically injured patients with violence-related wounds die while in emergency and intensive care units, owing to a dearth of competent staff and a lack of medicines and equipment.

• Last year, with an average of 100 people (each day) were killed and many more were fatally injured by gunshots and shrapnel wounds.

• Iraq had 34,000 doctors working there prior to the US-led invasion in 2003; about 18,000 have since fled the country and over 2,000 doctors have been killed in the war tormented nation.

• Out of a force of about 190,000, more than 12,000 Iraqi police have been killed since the invasion.

The US has completely failed to restore medical facilities in post-war Iraq. Though, the Iraqi system was in a poor shape (under Saddam) before the US invaded Iraq, but the allied offensive put the final nail in the coffin of medical services of the volatile nation, as thousands of war traumatic patients are flooded every week to the already strained Iraqi medical centers.

Incapability of Iraqi administration

US-led invasion isn't the only factor to be blamed for the degrading healthcare system in Iraq; however, inefficiency of the Iraqi administration is as responsible for the poor medical services as the US-led war. Iraqi administration has completely failed to restore harmony among different factions who time and again involve in sectarian clashes with each other, aggravating the already degenerated medical services. Moreover, there's a lot of corruption inside the Iraqi government. The Ministry of Health does not help repairing medical equipments.

Medical terrorists, who often raid hospitals and damage or steal equipments, are other major problem that threatens or hinders medical services in Iraq. These militants often murder patients in hospitals for being on the wrong side of the local insurgency.

Growing violence and persistent insecurity, together with a deteriorating number of health personnel, are exerting huge pressure on the health of the war-victimized Iraqis. War torn patients are forced to flee the nation to the neighboring countries like Jordan and Syria who provides the medical care to immigrants - only if they succeed to make it out of the country with adequate bucks in their pockets.

Exasperatingly, the present conditions (with ever increasing war injuries) are expected to worsen the already poor health of the Iraqi people, limiting their resistance for longer term health impacts during the post-war time.

The situation for the poorer sections of the society seems bleak and is likely to get bleaker still. The routes to any improvement in the medical conditions had been blocked by the reprehensible and inconsiderate approach of the American invaders at first, and thereafter by the inability of their so-called religious and political leaders. And frankly, nothing better should be expected in a country where human rights' violations have come to be accepted as a norm.