15 volunteers help Basra hospitals repair medical equipment
Shafaq News- Basra
A broken oxygen-producing machine during the COVID-19 pandemic marked the beginning of a volunteer initiative in Iraq’s Basra province, where technician Bassem Al-Ati now leads a team repairing medical equipment in hospitals free of charge.
Al-Ati told Shafaq News on Friday that he began repairing televisions in the 1990s before a doctor contacted him during the pandemic about a malfunctioning oxygen-producing machine at a hospital. Drawing on his technical experience, he successfully repaired the device, opening the way for his work in medical equipment maintenance.
He continued repairing hospital equipment, eventually establishing the Al-Amal (Hope) Team as demand grew and the work became more specialized.
The team consists of 15 volunteers, including technicians, engineers, and other specialists, among them three university professors. Combining academic knowledge with practical experience, the volunteers step in when hospital maintenance teams cannot resolve electronic or technical faults, according to Shafaq News' correspondent.
Priority For Children’s Healthcare
Al-Ati said the team pays particular attention to Basra Children’s Hospital, where children —including cancer patients— require reliable medical equipment for treatment.
Among the team's achievements, Al-Ati recalled repairing a medical device worth around 100 million Iraqi dinars ($66,225) in just two hours, explaining that neither the value nor the complexity of the equipment deters the volunteers from restoring it to working order and easing the burden on hospitals.
