Doctors appeal to Blair to end medical shortages in Iraq
Iraq-UK, Health, 1/20/2007

Nearly 100 British and Iraqi doctors have written to Prime Minister Tony Blair whose country is one of the occupying forces in Iraq, warning that children are dying in Iraq because of medical shortage.

"Children who could otherwise be treated by simple means are left to die in hundreds because they do not have access to basic medicine," Blair was told.

According to the Daily Mail yesterday, signatories of the letter include Iraqi medics, British doctors who have worked in Iraqi hospitals, and leading general practitioners and consultants in the UK.

The letter appealed to the prime minister to end the shortages, warning that children are dying because of a lack of basic equipment costing as little as 95 pence ($1.85).

Babies were being ventilated via a plastic tube in their noses because of a lack of oxygen masks, while others die through a lack of sterile needles which cost less than 1 British Pound.

Children, who have lost limbs, were reported to have been left without prostheses, while others with grave psychological distress were not being treated.

Their appeal was said to have been backed by international lawyers who say conditions in the hospitals could breach the Geneva convention that requires Britain and the US, as occupying forces, to protect human life.

The doctors called on the British government to account for the $ 16.7 billion fund which should have provided proper hospital care but more than half the money is thought to have vanished through corruption, theft and payments to mercenaries.

Previous Stories:
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  Clare Short: Blair is delusional on Iraq   (1/13/2007)
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  EU, Iraq to launch negotiations for Trade and Cooperation Agreement   (11/18/2006)

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