New Healthcare Center Proves Adage: If You Build It, They Will Come

Rural Community All Smiles About New Healthcare Center

By Norris Jones
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

BAGHDAD — If you build it, they will come. And when a new primary healthcare center (PHC) recently opened between Baghdad and Fallujah, come they did in record numbers. Dr. Mohammad Gassan said at the old clinic they were seeing 75 to 150 patients daily. Today they are treating 250 to 450 patients daily.

“Some mothers are walking miles to bring their sick infants here,” he said. Through word of mouth, residents have heard that a new facility has opened with new equipment and they want the very best for their families, so they are willing to come from long distances to get here, he continued. “With the weather getting cooler, the most common ailment we’re seeing is upper respiratory infections including colds and flu.”

The clinic is open six days a week, 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Physician’s assistant Sa’ad Naji Fayadz, who is in charge of the clinic’s respiratory department, points out that the project was delayed for more than two years and people kept asking, “When will it be finished?”

The delays continued and the situation did not improve “until we got rid of the insurgents.” He said the community was very grateful when construction restarted and the new facility finally opened earlier this month. “It’s very beautiful. Everything is as it should be and we’ve never seen a place like this in our lives,” he added.

Navy Cmdr. Steve Frost with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers knows from personal experience the turnaround in that community. “In April, as we were exiting the unfinished facility, we had a 40-minute gunfight there during which one of our vehicles was destroyed by an RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade). Today, you have mothers coming up, inviting you to hold their babies, a big step for Iraqis. It is truly rewarding to see the smiles on their faces and this has been well worth the effort.” Frost is overseeing the construction of 30 new PHCs in Baghdad Province and 11 PHCs in Al Anbar Province.

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