Lunch with The Lancet Salam Ismael

摘要

3 years ago, in the wake of the US-led occupation of Iraq, Salam Ismael and six of his fellow junior doctors gathered in a room of the Shaheed Adnam Hospital in central Baghdad to plan a protest. They believed the Iraqi health system was in danger: doctors were being threatened at work, supplies were running short, and a corrupt politician from Saddam Hussein's regime had become health minister.Within days this group of seven, and some 450 other doctors and nurses, had gathered outside US headquarters in central Baghdad. Over breakfast in Sydney recently, during a lecture tour in Australia, Ismael explained how, somewhat to their surprise, the protesters got their message through. The US forces listened to their envoys and the minister was ousted. This success was enough impetus for Ismael and his colleagues to form a group to act as a voice for physicians and to help give medical care to those most urgently in need. By September, 2003, Doctors for Iraq had formed.30-year-old Ismael was elected as the head of the society. "At first we based ourselves on groups like Medecins Sans Frontieres", he says. "We would send medical relief teams into conflict zones." That work continues, but the organisation has diversified. Its members now also do research into issues such as brain drain-some 3000 doctors have left the country since 2003-and the status of the health-care system.