Hospital staff and facilities in Baghdad are stretched to the limits -- INVASION OF IRAQ

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Subject: Hospital staff and facilities in Baghdad are stretched to the limits

Author:
Anonymous

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Date Posted: 12:52:21 04/06/03 Sun

Hospital staff and facilities in Baghdad are stretched to the limits E-mail this
Daily bulletin, ICRC

5 April 2003

Fighting in and near Baghdad appears to have continued pretty much unabated. The ICRC delegation in Baghdad is hearing the continuous sound of fighting from parts of the city. Because of the security situation, the delegation has decided to temporarily suspend movements of staff in the city. Iraqi ICRC employees have been sent home to be with their families while international staff is staying at the office.

The electricity supply remains mostly out of order and some parts of Baghdad reportedly no longer have piped water.

Increasing military activity is reported along the frontline in northern Iraq separating coalition forces and Kurdish factions on the one hand, and Iraqi forces on the other. This has caused some concern among the population in Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Iraq. Overnight from the 3 to the 4 April, many people fled the town of Dohuk to villages in the mountains. However, many of them returned home on the following day.

The ICRC convoy that brought medical supplies to the city of Basra on 4 April has now returned to Kuwait.

Medical assistance for hospitals

Hospitals in Baghdad visited during the morning of 5 April report a continuous inflow of war-wounded patients and say they are treating hundreds of casualties. Hospital staff and facilities are stretched to the limits.

On Friday, four Baghdad hospitals visited by ICRC medical staff reported they had received several hundred war-wounded patients as well as dozens of fatalities. The hospitals are finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the situation. While they have to rely on back-up systems such as generators to operate, personnel face the difficult choice of staying at home with their families or coming to work.

The ICRC delivered 150 blankets and 50 body bags to Al Yarmouk General Teaching Hospital.

In Basra, the ICRC continued to unload and distribute to hospitals the medical materials brought in by the organisation's first convoy on 4 April. The ICRC is also trucking water to the three main hospitals as well as to locations in the neighbouring district of Al-Zubayr

Assistance to internally displaced persons

In northern Iraq, the ICRC continues to monitor closely the situation of families leaving their homes because of the conflict. ICRC staff assessed the situation in Aqra in Dohuk governorate on Friday and distributed assistance to 34 vulnerable families (about 150 persons).

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