By Mac Skelton and Abdulameer Mohsin Hussein, for the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.
Medicine Under Fire – How Corruption Erodes Healthcare in Iraq
The April and July 2021 hospital fires in Nasiriya and Baghdad left hundreds dead, adding insult to injury for a medical system that had already buckled under the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic. Why did these deadly fires transpire?
In the media, journalists highlighted a lengthy series of contributing factors leading to the tragedy, including flimsy and highly flammable construction materials, the explosion of mismanaged oxygen tanks, electrical shorts, and a lack of fire safety equipment.
Underlying these defects, ordinary Iraqis pointed to a deeper cause: pervasive corruption in the healthcare sector. Corruption, they alleged, explained why it was that an oil-rich country had not built and maintained safe and secure health facilities.
This preliminary paper looks to the tragic phenomenon of mass-casualty hospital fires in Iraq’s COVID-19 wards to kickstart a larger policy-oriented conversation on the political drivers, key mechanisms, and human costs of corruption in the healthcare sector.
Broadly speaking, the research contends that political parties in control of the healthcare system compromise the safety and efficacy of both public and private hospitals by systematically evading quality controls and maximizing profits from medical supply chains at all costs.
Click here to download the full report.
(Source: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung)
The post How Corruption Erodes Healthcare in Iraq first appeared on Iraq Business News.