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Geneva (pte030/16.04.2003/13:18) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) http://www.who.int has reported a catastrophic situation in many Iraqi hospitals. A team from the organisation examined hospitals in the city of Kirkuk for the first time recently. A visit to Azadi Hospital (formerly Saddam General Hospital) revealed a precarious situation: of the 400 beds in the hospital only 40 of them are occupied. Most of them are only moderately injured. WHO states two reasons for this. Firstly, due to lack of equipment, severely injured patients don't have a good chance of survival, and secondly, both patients and health workers don't trust the hospital. Currently 50 to 75% of staff are absent from work. Many of them have not been paid for April, and there also seems to be no system of keeping track of employees' presence at work.
All the medication and medical equipment has been looted, which makes working there extremely difficult to almost impossible. Even windows, doors and air-conditioning systems have been stolen or destroyed. Health centres and the local office of the Ministry of Health have also been raided by looters. WHO's study also includes reports on similar situations in other hospitals in Iraqi cities.
The WHO report concludes that the following problems need to be addressed: protection of the various health care sectors, payment of running costs and staff, sanitation and repairing of hospitals, and the quality and quantity of medical and sanitary assistance.
(newsfox-special Iraq)
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