Two new hospitals for Baghdad’s low-income neighborhoods

 

By Anwar Jumaa

 

Azzaman, April 16, 2005

 

The Health Ministry is to construct two major hospitals in Baghdad, the first in Sadr City and the second in Shaab District, two of the capital’s most impoverished neighborhoods.

 

The one in Sadr City is of 400-bed capacity and “will be an example of a modern health facility supplied with latest medical equipment,” the ministry said in a statement.

 

The statement said the hospital in Shaab will have a 200-bed capacity.

 

The statement did not mention how much the two hospitals will cost or which company has won the contracts to build them.

Health conditions in Iraq have not improved in the two-years since the downfall of the former regime despite the removal of U.N. trade sanctions which restricted the flow of medicine to the country.

 

But the statement said shortages of medicines were to be alleviated as “huge quantities” were on their way to hospitals across the country.

 

“The ministry has purchased all the medical equipment and services needed by hospitals and health establishments,” the statement said.

 

The relative improvement in security is apparently luring foreign firms to the country.

 

The Ministry of Electricity has said it has singed a contract with the Italian Franco Tosi, a thermal and hydropower generation firm, to rehabilitate two major units at the Baiji power plant.

 

The power plant in Baiji is the largest in the country. If fully operational, it can produce more than 500 megawatts a day.

 

The two units Franco Tosi will repair are expected to add 220 megawatts to the national grid once completed.

 

The ministry says the contract with the Italian firms was singed during a visit by the Electricity Minister Ayham al-Samarraai to Italy early this month.