“A miserable place.. Is it possible that this is a hospital?” With these words, many Iraqi activists recalled the case of Al-Rashad Hospital in Baghdad, which is designated for the treatment of people with mental and psychological diseases.
Today, Sunday, some Iraqis posted on Twitter new pictures of this hospital, which sparked widespread controversy at the beginning of this month, showing its miserable condition, at a time when it is supposed to receive patients in dire need of psychological care.
The pictures also showed the size of the dirt in the aforementioned hospital, while we could not verify its authenticity.
While some recalled the visit of Prime Minister Muhammad Shia’a al-Sudani late last year to Kadhimiya Hospital in the capital, Baghdad, after he was shocked by videos of this facility spread on social media, promising to seek to improve health services in the country.
However, much has not changed since then. During the past months and weeks, the issue has returned to the fore, with Iraqis sharing video clips from some of the country’s hospitals, whether in Baghdad or abroad, showing the dire condition of a number of them.
It is noteworthy that the health sector in Iraq suffers from many problems that were exacerbated by the Corona pandemic, in addition to the lack of development in many regions, due to years of war and corruption as well.
The crisis of corruption in many official institutions has also exacerbated the problem of the deterioration of the health sector in a country rich in oil, but a third of its population is below the poverty line, according to AFP.