Iraqi Forces Continue Medical Corps Recruitment Efforts
BAGHDAD, Iraq – The Iraqi Armed Forces’ new Medical Corps is using a generous incentive plan to encourage doctors and medical personnel to enlist in service rather than seeking more lucrative and competitive civilian sector opportunities.
The recruiting strategy, comprised of an agreement between the Iraqi Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Health, allows Iraqi personnel employed by the Ministry of Health to keep government employment salaries while adding the armed forces’ pay as a bonus.
Medical services are free to citizens of Iraq. Medical employees’ salaries are paid by the Ministry of Health.
“In the military, they have to work 24 hours, seven days a week,” the Iraqi Armed Forces, surgeon general, a brigadier general, said (full name withheld for security reasons), “and it is more dangerous work.
“So when we established the army, no doctors would come because of the lower salaries,” he said. “So now we pay them more to come,” he added.
The result is a corps of 185 trained medical personnel including doctors, medics, technicians, physical therapists, and other various medical support and administrative personnel. Another 100 medical officers await final approval through the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Defense vetting process.
Plans are to initially grow the force to 2,600 personnel with that number changing in proportion to any increases to the originally programmed force of 27 Iraqi army battalions and the Iraqi National Guard forces currently operating in the country. The Iraqi army will be full strength in early 2005.
“Medicals are vital not only to treat the patient and evacuate the soldiers,” the surgeon general said, “but also to increase the morale of the soldiers.
“When the soldiers see the ambulance and the doctors and medics around him,” he said, “he will fight because he knows that if he is injured he will be treated.”
After recruitment, most medical personnel go straight to work in their specified field having served in the previous army as medical personnel. Training programs, however, are being formulated to establish an up-to-date and professional medical team.
“We will have a special department to maintain the training of people,” the surgeon general said. “We want to maintain their training every year, [or] every six months, to examine them again so that we can update their information.”
Current efforts include a medical logistics course in Marka, Jordan, started Aug. 23, with assistance from the Jordanian military. The training program will also add an officer’s basic course for recruited physicians and standard medical training for enlisted personnel.
Of the corps’ 185 medical personnel, 53 are trained physicians, including one female dentist currently undergoing advanced training at Harvard Medical School, in Boston, Mass. The future reliance on a heavy training program to maintain the skills of the force is a new requirement for Iraq’s armed forces.
“It is important to have a skilled medical force,” the surgeon general said. “I was in America and saw some incredible things.
“We will eventually get there,” he said.