Soldiers Seek Iraqi Dentists And Doctors For Jisr Diyala Area
Because of the greatly improved security there is an ongoing effort to attract medical and dental professionals to the Mada’in”Qada area of Iraq. Previous bad security and dangerous conditions led to the fleeing of most medical and dental people from the area, and from the entire Northern and Central Iraq region.
Now, due to the peace and relative calm that has descended on the region, both members of the Coalition and local Iraqi government officials are trying to attract members of the medical and dental community to return to Jisr Diyala and the surrounding area to practice medicine. Colonel Ryan Kuhn met with Hussein Gazi Zaydan to talk about various methods of attracting new doctors and dentists to the area. Colonel Kuhn is the Executive Officer of the 3rd HBCT and Mr. Zaydan is the Mada’ In Qada head of Dentistry for the Jisr Diyala hospital.
“The Mada’In’Qada area is now fairly safe, and it is secure now, and we need to find ways to get the message out to people, to not be afraid, and to return,” said Zaydan. Both Zaydan and Colonel Kuhn believe that once people realize that the area is safe from terrorist attacks that dentists and doctors, as well as other medical professionals will be attracted to the area once again.
“We encounter people all the time who do not know its safe, they are afraid that the situation is like it was before. Its not, it has greatly changed for the better. Good citizens can return and feel safe in their homes again, the security has increased so much that most people will not even recognize the area,” said Colonel Kuhn.
Each year there are about 500 dentists who receive diplomas from the University of Baghdad Dentist school. Few of these are willing to work within the Qada Area.
