Crime blamed for doctor shortage in Iraq
高犯罪率导致伊拉克医生短缺

Updated Fri. Sep. 7 2007 8:11 AM ET

Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Iraq only has a third of the doctors it needs because killings and kidnappings of the medical professionals prompted many to leave the country, its military surgeon general said Thursday.
华盛顿 -- 伊拉克军医署长星期四说：伊拉克医生的数量只有其需求量的三分之一。对医护人员的暗杀和绑架导致许多医护人员逃离家园。

A recent decline in violence is tempting some to return, said Brig. Gen. Samir Abdullah Hassan, surgeon general for the country's soldiers, sailors, airmen and special forces.
负责伊拉克士兵，水手，空军人员和特种部队的军医署署长Samir Abdullah Hassan将军说：最近一段时间以来暴力事件的家很少会吸引一些人回家。

Speaking to Pentagon reporters, Samir said he didn't have figures for the number of doctors practicing in Iraq now compared to the number before the war. But the military alone has only about a fourth of the physicians its needs -- there are 148 and the need is for 600 to 700, he said.
Samir对五角大楼的记者说：他并不知道战争前后医生数量的差距。但是军队里的医护人员只有必须的四分之一，即148人，而他们需要600-700个医生。

For the country overall, the Ministry of Health only has 35 percent of the physicians it needs to staff its civilian hospitals, he said.
全国范围内，卫生部只有必普通医院所需医生的35%。

Samir, who was trained as an orthopedic surgeon, was in Washington the past week for meetings with U.S. military and civilian medical facilities.

He said colleagues who had fled to Jordan, Egypt and other nations have been in touch with him recently, saying they would like to come home.

"There is (still) kidnapping, there is assassination, but it's decreased," he said.
现在依然存在绑架和暗杀现象，但数量已经减少了。

"I can assure you if the security improved more and more, the majority of them would return back to the country," said Samir. To attract and keep more in the profession, the government also needs to increase salaries from the roughly $300 a month now paid to newly trained doctors, Samir said in a briefing with Dr. Ward S. Casscells, assistant secretary of defense for health.
我可以保证随着安全状况的改善，他们大部分人都会回国。为了吸引和留住专业人员，政府必须增加他们的公司。刚就业的医生月薪只有大约300美金。

Casscells said more attention was paid by the U.S. to Iraqi health care before violence spiraled in early 2006. He indicated that he's taking another look at the possibilities now that security seems to be improving in some areas.

Like everything else in Iraq, rebuilding the health sector has been greatly slowed by violence and problems within the Iraqi government.

For instance, of some 70 health care centers scheduled for construction by last July, only 44 were completed. Of those, 20 had been turned over to the Ministry of Health to administer and only eight were open at the end of July, according to the most recent report by Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.