Sgt. Blake Kent
22nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
SUDARA, Iraq -- For soldiers devoting time to medical assistance visits in Iraq, there is a larger goal than the temporary aid and medications they distribute.
Like the developing Iraqi military and developing government, the Iraqi medical care system must be developed to aid the people long after the Coalition Forces have gone.
The Soldiers of the 163rd Infantry (Mechanized), Montana Army National Guard, are aiding village medical clinic development through evaluations of the clinic's medical needs.
"The visits are a bit of a "catch 22" because we want the Iraqi system to work." said 1st Lt. Patrick B. McCabe of Nampa, Idaho, a doctor for the 145th Support Battalion, Idaho National Guard, attached to the 1st Bd., 163rd Inf. (Mech.).
"Our main goal is to evaluate what the Iraqi doctors and Iraqi clinics need,"
"No country will work if the healthcare system doesn't work," McCabe said.
"A lot of the clinics don't have the tools they need," McCabe said. "If we could help them start treating diseases earlier, we could really save the healthcare system a lot of money and improve the quality of life here."
By visiting the clinics and seeing the patients that are being treated, the Soldiers not only can assess what medicines and medical equipment the clinics need, but can also gain a picture of the major medical problems that the villages are facing.
"You worry about a lot of outbreaks of things like cholera," McCabe said. "In the U.S. that would be just an inconvenience, but here it would be a death sentence."
"It's hard because a lot of the problems we could fix in the states with no problem will kill some of the patients we see in these clinics because they have progressed so far," said Maj. John DuBose of Farmville, NC, a doctor for the 218th Brigade Combat Team, South Carolina National Guard, attached to 1st Bd., 163rd Inf. (Mech.).
"It is like medieval Europe right now," he said.
Another large problem is gastro-intestinal ailments due to the people getting their water straight from the river, McCabe said.
"What we need to be seeing is wells and water purification measures being taken; a lot of that has to do with the power situation; that would solve a lot of the ailments," McCabe said of the problems with water purification and electricity in Iraq.
Many of the villagers have problems with asthma and other respiratory problems.
Some of the respiratory problems are heredity and air quality in at least this part of the country is very poor, McCabe said.
The medical assistance team also works with the doctors to see what things they need in order to improve the quality of care they can give.
The medical personnel are relatively well trained, but the hardest part for them is staying current, McCabe said. They miss out on the seminars and medical journals that are available to doctors in other countries.
"They are used to using injections for everything," McCabe said. "It is like old American medicine practices."
It is difficult for the village medical clinics to receive the medications they need.
The clinics are supposed to receive supplies every 30 days, but the supplies only last about 15 days according to the clinic doctors.
All of the medical supplies that the medical assistance visit team brings to the clinics is donated from people and organizations in the U.S. The team is not allowed to use the military medical supplies at the clinics, so they are dependent on donations.
The medical assistance available to the villages extends outside of the clinics. Patients needing medical assistance that the clinics can't provide have other options through Iraq's Ministry of Health.
"The unit that was here before us did very few medical assistance visits. Does it help? I guess we'll have to wait and see," McCabe said. "We've only been here a short while, but we have already been seeing the medical institutions improve."