For mothers-to-be hospitals are no-go zones in Iraq

Iraqimidwifeummmariam used to help bring three babies into the world per day. But with mothers-tobe avoiding pandemic-hit hospitals, she now delivers twice that number in her makeshift home clinic. Across the country recovering from decades of war, health centres face shortages of oxygen supplies and protective equipment even as coronavirus cases soar to almost 130,000, with nearly 5,000 deaths.

Among those infected in the economically battered country, according to official figures, are 3,000 medical staff.

“That’s why many women now prefer to deliver their children at my place,” says Umm Mariam, speaking from the clinic she has set up at her home in Kut, southeast of Baghdad.

The dire situation is a far cry from the Iraq of the 1970s, which prided itself on one of the best healthcare systems in the Middle East, by offering free stateof-the-art care to its citizens.

But back-to-back conflicts — from the war with Iran that started in 1980 to the Us-led military campaigns and the battle against the Islamic State group — have sapped funds used to maintain the system.

For years international sanctions made it impossible to get new medical equipment or even spare parts into the country.

The government still allocates barely two per cent of its annual budget, which is funded almost entirely by oil sales, to the health ministry.

Even before COVID-19 hit this year, Iraq’s hospitals were run down, with outdated or broken equipment and staff often poorly trained and overworked. — AFP