An American report: Corrupt and militias control the health sector

[size=52]An American report: Corrupt and militias control the health sector[/size]

[size=45]Translation/ Hamed Ahmed[/size]
[size=45]The suffering of a young man with cancer, which ended in his death, showed the extent of great corruption in the health sector in Iraq, and an American newspaper revealed that officials, politicians, businessmen and militias seized funds designated for the establishment of hospitals, estimating the drug trade market at up to 4 billion dollars annually, and that only a quarter of these drugs enter Via official routes.[/size]
[size=45]A report by the American newspaper The Washington Post, translated by (Al-Mada), stated that "the former first lady of the United States of America, Lara Bush, had instructed 18 years ago to establish a special hospital for children's cancer in Basra, after her country's forces invaded Iraq in 2003." The report added, "The hospital was supposed to be the best in the world after the US government spent more than $100 million to complete it."[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out, "The hospital is now suffering from ruin and neglect due to rampant corruption in the health system of Iraq, which was classified by World Bank data as among the worst in the region."[/size]
[size=45]The report pointed out that "former and current Iraqi officials admitted that today there is an army of fraudsters and corrupt people who are stealing from Iraqis their aspirations for a better healthy life, after decades of wars and economic sanctions that damaged the country's health sector."[/size]
[size=45]And he added, “The boy, 15-year-old Hussein Sami, is one of the victims of this corruption, while he was lying on his bed in the chemotherapy hall. about him".[/size]
[size=45]And the report indicated, "The doctor gave a pessimistic look at the child's father, and told him: He is not responding to treatment, you have no hope of keeping him in Iraq." He continues, that "patient Sami, lying thin under his bed cover, looks as if he is no more than ten years old, has caused corruption to interrupt his treatment, and expensive medicine bills are burdening his family, threatening them with bankruptcy."[/size]
[size=45]And the report noted, that “doctors say that the medical equipment he needs is often missing or out of order, and the prescriptions are often stuffed with medicines that are either not needed or cannot be paid for.” He stressed, "Sami, who was diagnosed with cancer at the age of two, was among the first patients at the Children's Cancer Hospital when it opened in 2011, after six years behind schedule."[/size]
[size=45]The report stated, "Sami's family was satisfied that their child was lying in it. In Iraq, they cannot easily obtain a PET scan for the patient, which is a vital device for detecting infected cells, and for this they have to spend thousands of dollars to take the child to Jordan to find This diagnostic device.[/size]
[size=45]And he stated, "In Iraq, even at the present time, there are only a small number of this device that does not exceed the number of fingers on the hand, and there are none in Basra Hospital, and the waiting list is long."[/size]
[size=45]And he continued, "The doctor confirmed that the only chance for Sami to live is a bone marrow transplant, indicating with great sadness that it is not possible to perform it inside Iraq, after returning Sami's diagnosis paper to his health file in his bed."[/size]
[size=45]The report noted, "The Ministry of Health does not really suffer from a lack of funding, and based on Iraq's budget for the year 2021, in recent years, no less than 1.3 billion dollars have been allocated to build hospitals only."[/size]
[size=45]It quotes former and current Iraqi officials, who refused to reveal their names, as saying that “corruption is rampant in the country, and the funds allocated for everything from providing medicines to establishing hospitals are acquired by influential people in the ministry, businessmen, and political groups.”[/size]
[size=45]One of the former officials stated, according to the report, that “the parties hacked everything, and when I entered my office for the first time, I found bags full of contracts waiting for me to sign for the purchase of goods with huge sums of money,” stressing that “the Ministry of Health did not respond to the newspaper’s answer on that.”[/size]
[size=45]The report continues, "The Integrity Commission often issues reports on a regular basis alleging the occurrence of prohibited acts in contracts for the purchase and maintenance of medical equipment."[/size]
[size=45]He added, "The commission spoke last month about subjecting officials in Maysan Governorate to investigation regarding the purchase of optical detection devices, scanning, at prices that exceed their original prices.[/size]
[size=45]And the report went on, "Iraqi researchers monitoring the health system stated that the fees for parking lots at the largest medical complex in Baghdad come in tens of thousands of dollars per day, but only a small part of these fees reaches the government's accounts."[/size]
[size=45]He cautioned, “An agreement was reached with a Turkish company, Emaar, in 2010 to build five medical facilities around the country,” revealing that “the budget of $750 million for this project was implemented before only two facilities were completed.”[/size]
[size=45]The report quotes a former government official as saying, "They were unable to complete these facilities because of corruption. One of them had paid a huge amount in advance, and then the money disappeared."[/size]
[size=45]According to the report, a member of the Integrity Committee in the former parliament, Kazem Al-Shammari, stated that “the funds allocated to build these facilities were used, part of which were bribes for officials in the Ministry of Health who approved the contract, as well as bribes for inspectors and local armed factions.”[/size]
[size=45]The report confirms, "The Turkish company, Universal Akarsan, for the construction of hospitals, did not respond to a request for comment by the newspaper."[/size]
[size=45]And he stated, "All the beds in the patient's hall, Sami, are full of patients, and there are not enough seats for parents to sit in, and at night some companions are forced to sleep on the floor."[/size]
[size=45]The report quotes the exhausted father of the patient, Sami, "When your child gets sick, you will do everything for him, but the health system here is not good, and this constitutes a heavy burden on us."[/size]
[size=45]And he continued, "One of the former hospital officials spoke about his feelings between two fires and that he wants to serve these children, but on the other side he is confronting corrupt people who want to steal their treatment, their money, and their lives."[/size]
[size=45]The report indicated that "Sami appeared to be out of danger and improving, and that was about four years ago, after several rounds of chemotherapy. Doctors told his father that he would recover if he remained healthy for five years."[/size]
[size=45]He stressed, "Sami's cancerous tumor has receded, after fatigue and the father in shock, and they have no idea how they will pay for the medical bills."[/size]
[size=45]The report goes to “Azhar, Sami’s mother, who had sold her gold jewelry to finance the first stages of his treatment, and everything that was expensive in the house located in one of Basra’s poor neighborhoods was sold.”[/size]
[size=45]He continues, "The patient's family said that the trip to Jordan alone cost them $5,000, but the repeated visits to Najaf for diagnostic tests that are not available in Basra cost them $700 each time, and that the costs of medicines are also increasing."[/size]
[size=45]The report stressed, "The drug trade market in Iraq is estimated at about $4 billion annually, but according to Customs and health and financial officials, only a quarter of the amount of drugs enters the country through official channels."[/size]
[size=45]He added, "Importers and health officials mentioned that pharmacies are instead selling medicines that enter Iraq from neighboring countries through unofficial border crossings, where officials allied with major political parties reap part of the smugglers' benefits."[/size]
[size=45]The report noted, “These drugs are often more expensive, although the costs of cancer drugs are always higher than others, and some of them reach the country and it is nearing the expiry date, and importers and officials say that in some cases the drugs are counterfeit.”[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out, "An official in the pharmacy field said that this trade does not happen in secret. It takes place with the approval of political parties and militias operating in the region. Corruption is not only a deviation, it is a platform for action."[/size]
[size=45]The report said, "Customs and health officials in Baghdad have concluded that most of the smuggled medicines enter Iraq through border smuggling ports with Iran, and that trucks cross the borders with a pre-prepared approval in exchange for approximately $30,000 per truck."[/size]
[size=45]He explained, "Indicating the extent of the profits made through this illegal smuggling trade, the replacement of a job position with the Customs Authority is done for half a million dollars."[/size]
[size=45]And the report indicated, that “a network of intermediaries that, as soon as medicines arrive in Iraq, bring them to the market, and according to doctors and pharmacists, companies give commissions and bribes to needy medical officials in order to describe smuggled medicines in exchange for bribes, and one of the importers said that the bribes range from granting recreational holidays in Turkey Or Europe.[/size]
[size=45]And he added, "Sami, while he was lying quietly in his bed at home last summer, looked much thinner, the midday temperature in Basra exceeds fifty degrees Celsius, but he is still shivering."[/size]
[size=45]The report confirmed that the last dose of chemotherapy was very stressful for Sami, his brothers were doing everything they could to take care of him, and his mother said that his weight was decreasing in an alarming way. “.[/size]
[size=45]He added, "Sami's family had enough to suffice after the devastating fire incident at Nasiriyah Hospital, and according to civil defense and health officials, the poor quality of the flammable materials used in building the hospital's isolation annex due to corruption, led to the spread of the flames, which brought about Dozens of patients died there, and Sami’s father said he knew that the same substances had been used in the Basra Children’s Hospital.”[/size]
[size=45]And the report went on, "The child, Sami, never returned to chemotherapy. He died in the tenth month of October, and during his last months, his family noticed the weakness of the child's soul with his body. He was calm in his departure. His father said after his son's death: The candle in our house has gone out."[/size]
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