THE DISMAL STATE OF HEALTHCARE IN BASRAH

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BASRAH 000119 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 7/19/2016 TAGS: PGOV SOCI IZ SUBJECT: THE DISMAL STATE OF HEALTHCARE IN BASRAH BASRAH 00000119 001.2 OF 003 CLASSIFIED BY: Mark Marrano, Deputy Regional Coordinator, REO Basrah, DOS. REASON: 1.4 (b) ¶1. (U) Summary: The hospitals and clinics in Basrah suffer from a shortage of the most basic supplies and equipment. There are a total of 17 hospitals and numerous clinics in Basrah province. Most of the citizens of Basrah go to the public hospitals and clinics to receive free healthcare, the private hospitals and clinics are better equipped but most people are unable to afford their services. The most immediate needs facing the healthcare system in Basrah are blood bags, x-ray film and drugs. The hospitals also lack basic medical equipment, for example, there is only one MRI machine in the entire province and the wait can be up to six months. Poor infrastructure requires the hospitals to run their generators an average of 12 hours per day, lack of proper disposal of hazardous medical materials and sewage is also a problem. The consensus among healthcare professionals is that little is being done by either the local or central governments to help, however, the Director General for Health does feel that he receives cooperation and support from the local government. The medical field is also seeing migration of its doctors and nurses, especially Sunnis, out of Basrah. All of these elements contribute to the dismal state of healthcare in a province currently coping with security and political instability, healthcare is just one more problem in a long list that faces Basrah. End summary. AVAILABILITY OF HEALTHCARE IN BASRAH ¶2. (U) There are a total of 12 public hospitals, 18 Primary Health Centers (public clinics),five private hospitals and numerous private clinics that provide health care services to the residents of Basrah. Healthcare procedures, treatments and medicines are provided completely free of charge in public hospitals and clinics, however, some institutions have a nominal registration fee of 500 Iraqi Dinars (US 50 cents). Facilities and availability of equipment and drugs is better at private hospitals and clinics but few people can afford to pay for services. ¶3. (U) The largest public hospital in Basrah is the Basrah General Hospital. The hospital was built in 1926 and currently has 696 beds, which according to the current Director of the hospital, Dr. Ahmed Theyab Abdullah, is typically at 85% occupancy. The hospital consists of five departments including surgical, medical, pediatric, obstetric and gynecologic and technical. The hospital employs 150 specialist doctors, 512 resident doctors and 512 paramedical staff. Approximately 2000 patients come through the hospital's doors each day and the surgical department performs an average of 1000 surgeries per month. ¶4. (U) There are an adequate number of doctors in Basrah but there is a severe shortage of nurses, especially females, according to all of the healthcare contacts poloff spoke with. There is a medical college at Basrah University and the dean of the college, Dr. Thamer Hamdan, summarized the education of doctors as good in view of resource constraints. There is no degree granting program for nursing in southern Iraq, however, medical college offers a six-year vocational program in lieu of secondary education. Dr. Thamer, who is also an orthopedic surgeon at the Teaching Hospital, told poloff that to his knowledge there are only two nurses at the hospital that have nursing degrees. LACK OF ESSENTIAL SUPPLIES AND POOR INFRASTRUCTURE ¶5. (U) There is a critical shortage of medical supplies and drugs in all of the hospitals in Basrah. An issue that was raised in every discussion that poloff had with health sector contacts was the dire need for blood bags for the province's blood bank. All hospitals rely on a single blood bank to provide them with the needed blood for procedures. There are more than enough people willing to donate blood but no means with which to store the blood. According to Dr. Ahmed of Basrah General, requests to the blood bank are for an average of 1000 bags of blood per month, however, only 75 bags are received from the Ministry of Health (MoH),if supplies are received, per month. This acute shortage in blood has led to a cessation of non-emergency surgeries at all of the hospitals. Dr. Ahmed said that the MoH has promised 3000 blood bags for Basrah but they have yet to arrive. ¶6. (U) Other critical shortages include x-ray film and all types of drug supplies. Dr. Jenan Ghalib, Head of the Pediatric Oncology department at the Bin Gazwan Children and Maternity Hospital, told poloff in a meeting on July 13 that she had recently informed the Director General of Health that if drugs were not received soon, the department would have to shut down and turn patients away. (Note: The department is the only Pediatric Oncology department in all of the south and services BASRAH 00000119 002.2 OF 003 patients from all four southern provinces. End note.) ¶7. (U) There is also a lack of medical equipment in the hospitals and few technicians that can service and maintain the equipment that is available. According to Dr. Muyed Jumah Lefta, Director of the Basrah Teaching Hospital, technicians normally must be sent from Baghdad through a contractor or the central government. Dr. Muyed expressed frustration to poloff during a meeting saying that he and his staff must continually press the MoH in order to get a response for repair work for their equipment. The Teaching Hospital has the only Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine in southern Iraq and there is a six-month waiting list for exams. Basrah General Hospital, the largest in the province, has only one functioning x-ray machine and one sonogram machine. ¶8. (U) The most serious problems posed by lack of essential services and infrastructure to hospitals are shortage of electricity, inability to adequately dispose of hazardous medical waste and no sewage treatment. Basrah General has only two electricity lines that provide electricity for the entire hospital complex (a 500 square meter area) and there are problems with the transformers that carry the electricity in when it is available. The hospital has two generators but only one is functional, this generator provides enough power to only half of the hospital's buildings. During a visit to the private al Moosawi Surgical Hospital, the director, Dr. Zain al Moosawi, told poloffs that his hospital runs an average of 16 hours per day on generators. Dr. Jenan told poloff that the Bin Gazwan Hospital runs an average of 12 hours per day on their generators. ¶9. (U) Very few hospitals have the means to dispose of their hazardous medical waste. The Pediatric Oncology department uses an incinerator that was donated to them by an NGO, Basrah General only has one of two incinerators that functions and it is in use virtually 24 hours a day. The Teaching Hospital on the other hand does not have an incinerator and all of the trash is taken away and burned or simply dumped in one of the many unofficial landfills all over Basrah. Neither of the sewage systems at Basrah General or the Teaching Hospital are connected to the city system. Basrah General has septic tanks that are emptied and maintained by a hired company, the Teaching Hospital simply dumps their sewage into the Shaat al Arab River as most residents of Basrah do. LITTLE HELP FROM THE LOCAL OR CENTRAL GOVERNMENTS ¶10. (U) All of the healthcare professionals that poloff spoke with lamented the fact that they receive very little assistance from the Basrah Provincial Council (BPC) or the MoH. Most doctors and directors told poloff that they often solicit help and donations from the private sector and various NGOs. For example, Dr. Thamer of the Teaching Hospital told poloff that he would be traveling to Kuwait in the coming days to request assistance from the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health for blood bags and x-ray film. The hospital also recently received a donation of medical supplies from the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Jenan from the Bin Gazwan hospital also told poloff about a trip she recently took to Kuwait to solicit help in obtaining cancer treatment drugs. ¶11. (U) However, the Director General (DG) of Health, Dr. Kathim al Timimi, said that he has a good relationship with the BPC and there is cooperation and coordination on numerous projects. He cited the recent approval by the BPC of a grant for ten million ID (US$ 7,500) in order to purchase x-ray film. He added that turning to the BPC for help has only recently been done in order to compensate for the severe shortage of supplies. The DG stated that 31 million ID (US$ 23,255) was needed per month for medical supplies. According to the DG, the problem did not lie with the MoH but with the Ministry of Finance (MoF). He said that the MoH asked for a four billion ID (US$ 3.1 million) budget and the MoF only approved one billion ID (US$ 750,000). Dr. Kathim added that Basrah usually only receives 20-25 percent of its requests for supplies and equipment from the MoH. INTIMIDATION OF LOCAL HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS ¶12. (C) As with all Sunnis in Basrah, there is also intimidation and assassinations against Sunnis in the medical profession. The DG of Health estimated that 60 percent of doctors in the al Zubair areas of Basrah have left and 30 percent of doctors in central Basrah have left as well. To highlight the problem, Dr. Jenan called the head nurse of her department in to a meeting with poloff. The nurse explained that she was Sunni and her brother and sister, after receiving threats had already fled Basrah. She said that the reason she was still in Basrah was because Dr. Jenan convinced her to stay through the end of July. She lamented that she had over 25 years of experience and loved her job but feared for her life and wanted to leave as soon as possible. Salaries paid to doctors and nurses, approximately 200,000-650,000 ID per month BASRAH 00000119 003.2 OF 003 (US$150-400) to doctors and 150,000-400,000 ID per month (US$112-300) for nurses are not enough incentive for them to stay against all of the intimidation and violence they fear. All of the doctors that poloff spoke with said that the poor security situation prevented them from coming to the hospitals after hours. COMMENT ¶13. (C) Comment: As with all things in Basrah, the lack of essential services and poor security situation permeate every aspect of life. The state of perpetual fear that even the medical community lives under cripples the amount and type of care that they can offer the citizens of Basrah. The hospitals make do with what they have and with whatever resources come from the MoH but it is clear that more help is needed. As with everything else in Basrah, from security to politics to the environment, the state of healthcare is just one more problem in a long list that the citizens of Basrah must cope with on a daily basis. End comment. MARRANO