Mobile health teams reach remote areas

Small mobile health teams are bringing medical treatment to northern Iraqi villages that for years have had little health care. Swedish NGO Qandil has six teams operating in the north, each consisting of a doctor, two medical assistants and a driver. They visit villages and small towns, seeing patients at medical centres when available and dispensing basic medicines and health advice from their vehicle. Qandil’s programme coordinator, Marinka Baumann, told IRIN in Arbil that health services in a number of villages had been very limited for years. Many of the villages fell outside the Green Line - the boundary of the Kurdish government and its health services - and had still been under the control of the Iraqi regime. After the war many Arab staff of health centres had fled the areas. What was more, in some villages the health centres had become dilapidated and barely usable. In three villages near Arbil, Qandil has not only renovated the health centres but has now begun visiting at least once a week with the mobile team. Without this the villagers would most likely have to travel to the nearby cities of Arbil or Mosul which was a major cost and deterrent. The health centre in the predominantly Arab village of Al-Hawera opened after renovations for the first time this week. Before this Qandil teams had treated patients using what facilities were available or often seeing them from their four wheel drive vehicle. Dr Botan Abdulwahid Sorraj told IRIN in Al-Hawera that renovations began in August and while they still lacked many things, the situation was inestimably better than before. “They had been operating in very bad conditions with few drugs and staff often had no salaries,” he told IRIN. And the need is obvious. Outside the clinic a line of people waits to be let in the door for a consultation, many are mothers with crying babies. In a morning of consultations the Qandil team will see about 100 patients in Al-Hawera and often more at twice-weekly clinics in nearby Gwer. “Really, there isn’t enough time,” he explained. Most common complaints stem from diarrhoea and vomiting caused by poor sanitation and having no clean drinking water. Ten-year-old Abeer Khalim is a typical case of this; her pale and tired face evidence of constant vomiting. Dr Botan immediately put her on a dehydration drip and prescribes drugs to stop the vomiting. He said diarrhoea and vomiting was worst in summer and many sewage pipes in the village were broken due to lack of maintenance, leading to obvious problems. Anything he can’t treat he refers to hospitals in Arbil or Mosul. And if the patients have no way of getting there he often takes them in his vehicle. Seven-year-old Ahmed Ibrahim Jazar is one of those who will need follow up. His broken plastic shoes tied together with string and caked in mud, he has waited for an hour to see the doctor but isn’t complaining. Suffering constant nosebleeds, he is given immediate treatment but also referred to Arbil hospital for further investigation. His mother Garha Mohammed said all the residents of Al-Hawera were incredibly grateful for the new clinic and the weekly visits from the mobile team. “We have a good health centre now where we can be treated and we hope we can receive more help with this,” she told IRIN. There is no charge for consultation or drugs and for many the presence of the mobile teams has been a life-saver. “Medically I can guarantee many people were saved because of our treatment - there was a great deal of benefit,” Dr Botan said. “And we always try to give health education to people to try and stress that prevention is much better than treatment,” he added. As part of improving health conditions, Qandil was also tankering drinking water to 50 villages in the Makhmur area south of Arbil.