Iraqi Paper Reports Medicine, Staff “Shortages” at Al-Karkh Hospital

Text of report by Iraqi Media Network weekly newspaper Al-Sabah on 28 August

[Report by Sa'di Ghazalah in Baghdad: "Al-Karkh Hospital Still Suffers From Shortages of Medicines and Staff"]

The director of Al-Karkh General Hospital has said that the problem of shortage in medicines still exists because of the inability of the State Company for Marketing Medicines [and Medical Supplies] to provide them, in addition to the difficulty in buying medicines from drugstores because of the non-availability of medicines that have been tested. In statements to Al-Sabah, Dr Wa’d Abbas Haydar, director of the hospital, added: The hospital is not operating at full capacity because of the ongoing restoration works in it. These works have covered three surgery halls, burns and emergency halls, and the warehouses. They are carried out by three local companies, which are expected to finish their work in the beginning of next year.

He noted that the reasons for the continuation of the problem of shortage of medicines, although the ministry has given its authorization for purchasing medicines by the drugstores and scientific offices, are represented in the fact that most of the medicines have not been tested by the National Centre for Drug Research and Control, and this runs counter to what the ministry requires. This is in addition to the inability of the State Company for Marketing Medicines and Medical Supplies to meet those needs. He added that some of the difficulties, which are faced by the hospital and which lie in the shortage of medical and nursing staff, will be resolved soon, after the improvement in salaries and the security situation. He said that contacts are under way with a number of the qualified medical personnel abroad, who have previously worked at the hospital, to return to it. In addition, there are efforts to develop the current staff.

He said that the hospital receives many patients, whose number reaches around 17,000 monthly. Sometimes, this number reaches 30,000 patients. He attributed this to the non-implementation of the system of referral [of patients to other hospitals], which is expected to be implemented all over the country, as well as the citizen’s lack of health education. The reason for this is that the citizen does not recognize the diagnosis of the general or practicing doctor and he directly comes to the specialist doctor. This has affected the performance of the specialist doctors who work at the consultation clinics of public hospitals.

Dr Haydar pointed out that there is a difficulty in the disbursement of the additional monthly funds, which are allocated by the ministry for all hospitals and which total 50 million dinars for purchasing more equipment and furniture. The general budget does not specify the areas of spending of these funds. As a result of this, we have not benefited from these funds. He called for the need to implement a decentralized system, especially in the administration of hospitals.

Originally published by Al-Sabah, Baghdad, in Arabic 28 Aug 08.

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