UAE treats Baghdad's citizens to the best hospital in the city

Iraq's capital now has a gleaming hospital caring for 1,000 patients a day. Michael Jansen visited it

The Sheikh Zayed Hospital is a marvel. It is a model facility located on a main road in devastated and decaying Baghdad.

Its clean exterior shines brightly among the dust and smoke-stained buildings surrounding it. Its gates are always under siege. Hundreds of Iraqis of all stations of life line up under the sharp summer sun to wait hours to get a prescription filled or see a doctor.

The hospital opened on May 4th. Dr Yusif Muhammad, the head doctor, said: "On the first day we had 450 patients, on the second 600, on the third 800 and on the fourth 1,500. That is the highest number so far. Now it is about 1,000. So far we have only an outpatient department but we will soon have a section for surgery and then make it into a general hospital covering all the specialities.

"It is a gift to the Iraqi people from the United Arab Emirates. All the medical staff come from the UAE, all the equipment and all the medicines and supplies. We have established an air-bridge to bring in supplies whenever we need them, seven days a week if necessary."

The hospital is named for the UAE President, Sheikh Zayed al-Nahyan.

The UAE took over the Olympic Hospital, originally established by Uday Hussein, the former president's elder son, to treat ailing members of the Iraqi Olympic team. Later the hospital was expanded to provide medical attention for the general public.

"It was completely looted after the war," Dr Muhammad said. "They even pulled the electricity wires from the walls. It took us a week to refurbish it."

The hospital, now the best in Baghdad, demonstrates that where there is a will, there is a way to rebuild facilities lost during the war and the pillage which it unleashed.

Two other examples of almost instant restoration are the offices of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and UNICEF. Sitting in a tent in the garden of the UNDP complex of five buildings, Mr Francois Dubois, the agency's representative, told The Irish Times, "All five buildings were looted and destroyed by fire."

One, the learning centre, has been refurbished so far, again in a week. Mr Dubois has a rather spare office on the first floor. The smell of smoke still hangs in the air.

"The main problem we face is security, security, security," he said. "After security the people must have food and salaries. We must get them back to work. Then we must provide electricity, water and the other services. UNICEF is working on reconstructing the national grid and an employment programme so we can put people back to work and put money back into the economy... My message since I came back to Iraq is, don't forget the Iraqi people, Iraqi expertise. They are an extremely cultured and educated people. Many people think they are reconstructing in a vacuum."

UNICEF's offices off Abu Nawwas Street on the Tigris is another miracle of restoration. It too was thoroughly looted. Mr Carel de Rooy, the country representative, also has a spartan office and communicates by satellite phone. His agency's first priority was to re-establish facilities so that vaccines could be brought into Iraq, stored and transported to where they will be used.

Mr de Rooy said that the water situation in the north had deteriorated since the war but was not as bad as in Baghdad and the south.

"Eighteen cases of cholera have been confirmed," he said. UNICEF is eager to get children back to school because "it gets them back to normalcy and reduces the risk of being harmed by unexploded ordnance. In Baghdad alone, there are 1,700 areas where there is unexploded ordnance; 400 have been cleared, leaving 1,300. Every day there are 10 accidents involving children."