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A Ministry for Public Health!
9.9.2009
By Dr Goran Zangana
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September 9, 2009
ERBIL-Hewlęr,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — During
a few hours visit to the Ministry of Health of
Kurdistan Regional Government, I was introduced to a
crippling problem that plagues the work of the
ministry and prevent it from fulfilling its mandates
effectively.
While I was waiting for a paper of mine to be signed
by the Minister, a poor family with a 7 month kid
who had bilateral phocomelia (Absent Arms above the
elbow) was waiting to see him and beg for help for
their toddler. My paper was signed and many others
were as well while the heartbroken family couldn't
have the chance to meet the busy minister and went
back empty handed to the misery of abandonment.
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Dr.
Goran Zangana, Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq. Medical
Doctor Master of Public Health Fulbright Fellow/
Emory |
The
Ministry of Health has been extremely busy with a
host of bureaucratic procedures that have no direct
impact on health outcomes of Kurdistan Region. The
Minister himself and his staff are engaged with
activities that can be done by any directorate of
health in Kurdistan, while they neglected the more
urgent priorities of preventing illness and
promoting health.
Throughout its 16 plus years of service, the
Ministry of Health failed to accomplish the very
basic tasks of any Ministry of health. It couldn't
establish a robust surveillance system that could be
endowed with the human and technological capacities
to collect, analyze and utilize data about the
indicators of health in Kurdistan. We still are
ignorant about the incidence and prevalence of a
range of crippling health conditions in Kurdistan.
We don't know how many cases of Cholera do exist
each year, how many infant die, how many mothers
pass away during labor and what is the expected life
expectancy at birth.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Health neglected a host
of determinants of health that are extremely crucial
for the well being and health of individuals and
populations. The only part of the definition of
health that the ministry paying attention to is
physical health. It completely neglected the other
social and mental aspects of health. The ministry
failed to have at least a task force for mental
health in Kurdistan,www.ekurd.netthis
if we forget talking about a mental health act that
is so important given the disastrous mental health
consequences of the suffering of the Kurdish people.
To partly fix all these disastrous plaguing of the
Mini sty and the health care system in general, the
Ministry of Health has to change. As part of the
decentralization policies that should characterize
every federal state, the Ministry of Health needs to
be decentralized as well. It should give up doing
some of the works that any administrative
institution can do. For example employing doctors,
medical staff and other health care related
personnel can be done by the Directorates of Health.
This would mean that even the name of the Ministry
change to the Ministry of Public Health.
The new Kurdistan Parliament and Kurdistan Regional
Government has to take this matter seriously. Time
is long overdue to overhaul the Ministry of Health
and look for more effective and efficient
alternatives to the immensely disastrous status qua
of the current Ministry.
Dr. Goran Zangana, Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq.
Medical Doctor Master of Public Health Fulbright
Fellow/ Emory, you may visit Zangana's blog at
http://kurdistanhealth.blogspot.com
Copyright © 2009 ekurd.net
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