Fraternity in Iraq financed the purchase of a scanner and an endoscope for St. Raphael’s Hospital, Baghdad’s leading health facility renowned for its excellence.
A few months ago, St. Raphael’s Hospital called upon Fraternité in Iraq to finance the replacement of the scanner and the purchase of an endoscope. These two pieces of equipment are essential to the mission of the health establishment. The old scanner was used to examine an average of 270 patients per month affected by a wide variety of pathologies. It was defective and irreparable. Moreover, this endoscope will strengthen the capabilities of the gastroenterology department, especially for the diagnosis of gallstones. This equipment was delivered and installed at the beginning of February 2020!
Delivery and installation of the new scanner in several steps:
The reception of the material by Sister Maryanne, the director of the hospital…
…followed by its assembly by skilled workers…
… for an effective commissioning at the beginning of 2020!
An institution in Baghdad
Fraternity in Iraq has mobilized to help the Saint-Raphaël hospital, because it is an institution in Baghdad, ! When it was founded by Dominican Sisters in 1891, it was but a modest dispensary for the treatment of cholera patients. Then, in 1950, a larger hospital was inaugurated. In 2003, when the United States invaded the country to drive Saddam Hussein out, it was the only hospital that continued to function in spite of the blown-out windows. Operations continued in the basement.
Today, St. Raphael’s Hospital in Baghdad is a non-profit organization still run by the Dominican Sisters in order to provide patients, regardless of their income, with medical care in accordance with international best practices. The recent events of the fall and winter of 2019 have further demonstrated its central role in providing 24/7 care for the injured in life-threatening emergencies. It has never closed even at the height of hostilities.
The neonatology department
The Dominican Sisters who run the hospital
A multidisciplinary hospital
The hospital has nearly 95 rooms and employs 340 employees. It has a multidisciplinary and integrated approach between departments, including a maternity ward, specialized services such as gastroenterology, ophthalmology, urology, an orthopedics department and emergency services open 24/7.
Its blood bank enables it to have a permanent stock allowing rapid transfusions under hygienic conditions – a rare thing in Iraq. The establishment houses a dedicated laboratory, continuously open, as well as a pharmacy. The medical imaging centre provides quality services with the best machines. Finally, 6 surgical operating theatres, 6 delivery rooms and an endoscopy unit complete the system!
Thus, more than 16,300 operations are performed each year, including around 6,000 deliveries, nearly 8,000 surgical operations and more than 2,000 emergencies. In addition, some 260,000 outpatient consultations are carried out: radiology, electrocardiogram, blood pressure, obstetrics…
The team in the Gastroenterology Department, which will greatly benefit from the new endoscope, financed thanks to your donations.
Supporting the fragile financial equilibrium of this gold-standart establishment
Since its opening, the hospital has maintained its primary vocation of welcoming and caring for all Iraqis without discrimination. Although the establishment is run by sisters, most of the nursing staff is Muslim! Not receiving any subsidies, it functions thanks to a financial balance between the most well-off and the most destitute patients.
The most selective patient considers St. Raphael’s Hospital as the reference institution in Baghdad for the quality of care provided. Most foreign dignitaries and nationals in Iraq, as well as members of the Iraqi government, pay to be cared of there. However, care is provided free or almost free of charge for the poorest, especially for the displaced who have been driven away from their homes by ISIS or by the many wars that have ravaged Iraq in recent years. This financial equilibrium did not make it possible to cope with the replacement of certain expensive equipment and the investment needed to develop the hospital.
Fraternity in Iraq’s support therefore complements the care offered in Baghdad in a structure of excellence at the service of all.