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Iraq: Strengthening primary-health-care services for people in rural areas

25-03-2013 Photo gallery

Primary-health-care centres (PHCC) in Iraq are vitally important for delivering basic health services to people. The delivery of such services is hampered in many rural regions by uncertain security conditions. Since 2010, the ICRC has concentrated on assisting primary-health-care centres in violence-prone areas, while working with health authorities to strengthen this essential service.

  • Travelling to Abu Ghraib or Baghdad – the nearest cities – having become very difficult, the existence of the health-care centre in Al-Zaidan is crucial. The centre covers the basic needs of an estimated 47,000 people living in more than 100 villages, the most remote of which is 50 kilometres away.
    • Travelling to Abu Ghraib or Baghdad – the nearest cities – having become very difficult, the existence of the health-care centre in Al-Zaidan is crucial. The centre covers the basic needs of an estimated 47,000 people living in more than 100 villages, the most remote of which is 50 kilometres away. Awaid Hassan, 77, came early this morning to see a doctor about pain in his back. He is a shepherd who had been wandering the country in search of grazing land before arriving in Al-Zaidan four years ago.
      © ICRC / O. Moeckli / iq-e-01125
  • Awaid Hassan suffers from various ailments, understandable in a man of his age. Dr Bilal Abdallah is tending to Awaid Hassan. His work in the centre is part of the one year of training in rural areas that medical students have to complete before they can graduate.
    • Awaid Hassan suffers from various ailments, understandable in a man of his age. "Al-Zaidan health centre has become the best one in the Abu Ghraib area. It is my safe haven," he explains. Dr Bilal Abdallahis tending to Awaid Hassan. His work in the centre is part of the one year of training in rural areas that medical students have to complete before they can graduate.
      © ICRC / O. Moeckli / iq-e-01126
  • Built in 1963, the Al-Zaidan centre was only a small health post until 2007. Rabha Hiyal has been working there as a nurse since 2005. During the years of sectarian violence, the centre’s staff consisted of a biologist and Rabha; they provided vaccinations and essential drugs and dressed wounds.
    • Built in 1963, the Al-Zaidan centre was only a small health post until 2007. Rabha Hiyal has been working there as a nurse since 2005. During the years of sectarian violence, the centre’s staff consisted of a biologist and Rabha; they provided vaccinations and essential drugs and dressed wounds. "It was not easy for patients to reach the health post, they were afraid of being killed," she recalls. "As for the staff, we were often unable to come to work. Or we would be stuck at the centre for days!"
      © ICRC / O. Moeckli / iq-e-01127
  • The centre became a PHCC in 2007 and now employs 60 persons – including four doctors and nine medical assistants – and runs 28 programmes. The expanded staff and services are also a consequence of the decrease in violence. The most important services provided by the centre are primary health care, mother-and-child care, vaccinations and nutritional care
    • The centre became a PHCC in 2007 and now employs 60 persons – including four doctors and nine medical assistants – and runs 28 programmes. The expanded staff and services are also a consequence of the decrease in violence. The most important services provided by the centre are primary health care, mother-and-child care, vaccinations and nutritional care
      © ICRC / O. Moeckli / iq-e-01128
  • The centre receives an average of 70 patients a day.
    • The centre receives an average of 70 patients a day. "They are mostly babies and children," explains Dr Abdallah. "The most common health problems are diarrhoea, worms and flu. We also regularly treat patients with typhoid fever and brucellosis, a disease usually contracted by consuming the milk of infected animals."
      © ICRC / O. Moeckli / iq-e-01129
  • Sabah Faraj, who runs the laboratory at the centre, is an assistant biologist from Abu Ghraib.
  • Girls from the school nearby waiting for drugs prescribed by the doctor
  • Abd al-Jabar (left), who is from Al-Zaidan, started working at the centre in 2007. He weighs children and fills out their vaccination cards.
  • The vaccination ward is one of the busiest places in the centre. There are, still, occasional delays in the delivery of vaccines, but now children can be fully immunized.
  • Sabah Hassan has been in charge of the vaccination unit for nearly two years.
  • Mohammed Abbas, the ICRC’s medical field officer, is shown here conducting one of the regular training sessions for the centre’s staff. In this session, he is stressing the importance of hygiene, and the precautions that must be taken in a health-care facility, like thoroughly washing one’s hands and separating the various kinds of waste.
  • The centre is now too small for its staff of 60. The ICRC is building a bigger centre adjacent to it; this is expected to be completed by the end of June 2013. Many patients say that what is needed most is an emergency service for pregnant women, because travelling to Abu Ghraib, especially at night, is too dangerous. If the Ministry of Health is able to hire the necessary doctors, space will be found for such a service in the new building.

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