Dan
04-26-2006, 16:12
RELEASE NUMBER: 060426-03
DATE POSTED: APRIL 26, 2006
Iraqi, U.S. Army Special Forces medical personnel work together for a healthier Iraq
Staff Sergeant Christopher Stanis
CJSOTF-AP Public Affairs
ASH SHARQAT, Iraq (USASOC News Service, Apr. 26, 2006)– The halls of a rural hospital in the town of Ash Sharqat, near Bayji in northern Iraq echoed with the voices of the sick, weary and wounded waiting to see a doctor.
In one treatment room a baby received a vaccination while in another room, a woman was being examined for severe lower back pain. In yet another room, a man was receiving stitches to close lacerations across the side of his face and body. And in another room, many more waited.
This scene is all too common in many rural Iraqi hospitals. Overcrowded waiting rooms overwhelm Iraqi medical staffs who have the capability to treat patients, but they lack the capacity given a shortage of resources. This shortage of resources makes it difficult for Iraqi doctors here to handle many significant critical care cases.
“The (Iraq) Ministry of Health is trying to show that they have doctors and health care providers who are competent, and I have no doubt that their capabilities as doctors ranks right up there with a lot of doctors in the United States,” said a U.S. Army Special Forces medic who participated in a civil-military medical operation, or CMO, in Ash Sharqat, Iraq, on March 20, 2006.
The problem, he said, is that the majority of the Health Ministry’s funding goes to large cities such as Baghdad and Mosul, leaving the outlying areas with the ability to perform only basic medical care.
During this civil military operation, a U.S. Army Special Forces Team and medical personnel representing the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force – Arabian Peninsula provided medical supplies and worked with Iraqi doctors to increase the number of patients treated, at least for the day
The team brought a five-ton truck loaded with medical supplies and several experienced care providers including Army Special Forces medics, a U.S. Army medical doctor, and a U.S. Army dentist. And while they all did not come to push their practices on the local Iraqi doctors, they did come to lend their support and try to raise awareness for the plight of rural hospitals in Iraq.
“I know they don’t want us just running in and treating their people and running out, because it doesn’t do anything for the hospitals and it doesn’t do anything for the people to get trust in their hospitals,” said an Army Special Forces medic on the team. “What we need to look at, from my standpoint at the ground level, is pushing these types of operations more because it shows that friendly faces working hand-in-hand (with Iraqi doctors) and we can provide support to them in order to increase their capabilities.”
If the Ministry of Health sees what these hospitals can do with an improved facility, it may provide the funds required to sustain those capabilities.
“Once (the hospitals’) capabilities are increased, and they have the support they need, the people are going to trust them,” the medic said. “And once the people trust the hospitals, they’re going to go to them.”
“We weren’t just medical personnel from the United States Army, U.S. Special Forces going in to work on their people,” said the medic. “We were there to coordinate with the staff of the hospital already in place, to work in conjunction with them and along side of them.”
At the end of the day the U.S. personnel helped treat more than 160 patients before their supplies ran out – definitely a successful day.
The medic reinforced a time-honored principle that Army Special Forces goes into an area to provide support to local indigenous people whenever possible.
“These are key operations for us to conduct in order to give that positive presence that Special Forces has had throughout the world for decades now,” he said.
-usasoc-
DATE POSTED: APRIL 26, 2006
Iraqi, U.S. Army Special Forces medical personnel work together for a healthier Iraq
Staff Sergeant Christopher Stanis
CJSOTF-AP Public Affairs
ASH SHARQAT, Iraq (USASOC News Service, Apr. 26, 2006)– The halls of a rural hospital in the town of Ash Sharqat, near Bayji in northern Iraq echoed with the voices of the sick, weary and wounded waiting to see a doctor.
In one treatment room a baby received a vaccination while in another room, a woman was being examined for severe lower back pain. In yet another room, a man was receiving stitches to close lacerations across the side of his face and body. And in another room, many more waited.
This scene is all too common in many rural Iraqi hospitals. Overcrowded waiting rooms overwhelm Iraqi medical staffs who have the capability to treat patients, but they lack the capacity given a shortage of resources. This shortage of resources makes it difficult for Iraqi doctors here to handle many significant critical care cases.
“The (Iraq) Ministry of Health is trying to show that they have doctors and health care providers who are competent, and I have no doubt that their capabilities as doctors ranks right up there with a lot of doctors in the United States,” said a U.S. Army Special Forces medic who participated in a civil-military medical operation, or CMO, in Ash Sharqat, Iraq, on March 20, 2006.
The problem, he said, is that the majority of the Health Ministry’s funding goes to large cities such as Baghdad and Mosul, leaving the outlying areas with the ability to perform only basic medical care.
During this civil military operation, a U.S. Army Special Forces Team and medical personnel representing the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force – Arabian Peninsula provided medical supplies and worked with Iraqi doctors to increase the number of patients treated, at least for the day
The team brought a five-ton truck loaded with medical supplies and several experienced care providers including Army Special Forces medics, a U.S. Army medical doctor, and a U.S. Army dentist. And while they all did not come to push their practices on the local Iraqi doctors, they did come to lend their support and try to raise awareness for the plight of rural hospitals in Iraq.
“I know they don’t want us just running in and treating their people and running out, because it doesn’t do anything for the hospitals and it doesn’t do anything for the people to get trust in their hospitals,” said an Army Special Forces medic on the team. “What we need to look at, from my standpoint at the ground level, is pushing these types of operations more because it shows that friendly faces working hand-in-hand (with Iraqi doctors) and we can provide support to them in order to increase their capabilities.”
If the Ministry of Health sees what these hospitals can do with an improved facility, it may provide the funds required to sustain those capabilities.
“Once (the hospitals’) capabilities are increased, and they have the support they need, the people are going to trust them,” the medic said. “And once the people trust the hospitals, they’re going to go to them.”
“We weren’t just medical personnel from the United States Army, U.S. Special Forces going in to work on their people,” said the medic. “We were there to coordinate with the staff of the hospital already in place, to work in conjunction with them and along side of them.”
At the end of the day the U.S. personnel helped treat more than 160 patients before their supplies ran out – definitely a successful day.
The medic reinforced a time-honored principle that Army Special Forces goes into an area to provide support to local indigenous people whenever possible.
“These are key operations for us to conduct in order to give that positive presence that Special Forces has had throughout the world for decades now,” he said.
-usasoc-