Decrepit healthcare adds to toll in Iraq

[leftchick]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-health11nov11,0,3477207.story?coll=la-home-headlines

BAGHDAD — Thousands of Iraqis are believed to have died from shortages of medicine, vital equipment and qualified doctors, despite an infusion of nearly half a billion dollars from U.S. coffers into this country's healthcare system, Iraqi officials and American observers say.

Raging sectarian violence as well as theft, corruption and mismanagement have drained health resources and made deliveries of supplies difficult. Exacerbating the crisis, hundreds of doctors have been killed, and thousands have fled Iraq. The child mortality rate, a key indicator of a nation's health, has worsened since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, according to Iraqi government figures.

In the most sinister reported development, provincial Sunni Muslim doctors charge that Shiite Muslims who control the Health Ministry deliberately withhold medicines and other vital supplies. Privately, some U.S. officials say that hard-line Shiites use the ministry for political and sectarian ends.

This fall, U.S. troops raided the ministry, arresting employees suspected of kidnapping and killing patients at the Medical City Hospital in Baghdad. Afterward, ministry officials severed ties with the Americans and refused to open an $800,000 clinic built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in a deprived Sunni neighborhood in the capital.

[Tellurian]

1. yeah, if in fact the half a billion dollars ever got to Iraq..

I'm sure Cheney, had the money electronic ly pirated and diverted to his off shore bank account.

[leftchick]

2. this is just heartbreaking

and another war crime...

<snip>

At one of the busiest hospitals in Baghdad, five people die on average every day because the staff does not have the equipment to treat heart attacks and other commonplace illnesses and injuries, said Husam Abud, a doctor at Yarmouk Hospital. That translates to more than 1,800 preventable deaths a year at that hospital alone.

"Frankly speaking, if we get cases of cancer, we can't treat them," he said. "They'll probably end their days here. We don't have the adequate medication or the adequate equipment, and specialized doctors are not available."

[Lars39]

3. Anybody that reads this article and doubts the Lancet findings

has a screw loose.

[leftchick]

6. exactly

I can't not help but feel there will be millions of Iraqis dead before this is over. :(

[rpannier]

4. Another instance of...

"No one could have seen this happening."

From the Administration that didn't see
9/11
the Hamas Victory
The PDK acquiring the technology to build a nuclear weapon
The Levees Breaking
The taliban resurgence
Iraq becoming a breeding ground for terrorists

Does it EVER END?!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[gratuitous]

5. Heartbreaking

And another positive development from the election is that I won't have to listen to unchallenged crapola from the architects of this mess, telling us how much better off the Iraqis are now that Saddam is out of power, or how the Iraqis get to choose their own doctors, or about this spanking new clinic the Army built in Baghdad. Because while Saddam's downfall was good, it also led to a lot of suffering and misery in Iraq, none of which the people of Iraq particularly wanted and certainly didn't deserve.

And now with an opposition majority to contend with, the Bush administration will have to acknowledge (at the very least) these problems, and might even feel compelled to address them.