Iraq: a health system in crisis

Iraq is a dangerous place for many people to go right now. The ever present threat of war hangs over the country, and its people are still in desperate need of adequate health care, says Muhammed Akunjee

Iraq!? Why would you want to go there?" was said many a time with astonishment when our fellow medical students heard of our elective plans. Superficially, we probably did seem a bit crazy choosing such a destination; we weren't Middle Eastern and were from the United Kingdom, one of the countries active during the Gulf war. We had read numerous reports on the plight of Iraqi doctors and their patients after the war. In particular, we heard of the huge drug shortages, the lack of medical equipment, and the increasing childhood mortality facing the Iraqi nation. We wanted to visit the country and see how the health system was dealing with such a grave situation.

In Iraq, we were initially attached to the Al-Mansour paediatric teaching hospital in Baghdad. The hospital had 200 beds, 28 of which were devoted to paediatric oncology. We …