Iraq health care system: an overview

ABSTRACT

Iraq is emerging from several decades of wars followed by long periods of violence and insecurity. Many avoidable shortcomings in the health sector that result in poor quality health services are due to inaccessible data, information, and knowledge. Lost and unreliable data, poor documentation, lack of access to available knowledge all impede the delivery of high quality health care services. The aim of this paper is to describe the health care system in Iraq. The Iraq health system will be described according to one of the description methodology proposed by the WHO.A general background including the basic information of the country will be first presented followed by a description of the Iraq health system including a short account on the evolution of the Iraqi Ministry of Health [MOH] and the organizational structure of the health care system. A description of the National health policies will be provided in addition to an overview of the mission, vision and policies of the MOH and the outline of the MOH strategic plans. An account of the current health situation in term of morbidity, mortality and chronic disorders will also be provided