BAGHDAD - Staff from the Lutifiyah Public Health Center stand in front of their mobile medical clinic vehicle at Kinana School, April 8. The vehicle contains medical equipment and supplies to treat the patients from the local community who were seen ...

BAGHDAD - A staff member from the Lutifiyah Public Health Center gives patients medication at Kinana School as part of a mobile medical clinic containing medical supplies and equipment that went to the school to provide care to students and members o...

BAGHDAD - Adel (right), medical director and manager of the Lutifiyah Public Health Center, gives care to a patient at Kinana School during a visit to the school in Lutifiyah, April 8. Adel, along with doctors, nurses and technicians, traveled as par...

BodyBAGHDAD – Staff from the Lutifiyah Public Health Center left) prepare vaccinations at the Kinana School April 8. The mobile medical clinics serve as sign of the increasing responsibility the Government of Iraq is taking to provide medical care f...

BAGHDAD - Security gains, along with an emerging focus on rebuilding Iraqi infrastructures, changes mission priorities for U.S. troops, as they move away from combat operations and on to what the military terms as civil capacity efforts.

Civil Military Operations Soldiers, working with 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division and members of the embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team, visited the Lutifiyah Public Health Center April 8 to meet and assist an Iraqi mobile medical clinic.

Funded by the Government of Iraq, the mobile medical clinic is an experimental project in the Mahmudiyah and Lutifiyah Qadas, south of Baghdad. Over the past month, the clinic assisted local citizens to rely less on U.S. Soldiers for medical care, and more on Iraqi doctors. The goal is to have the GoI as the primary health care provider for the Iraqi people.

"The mobile medical clinic belongs to the Mahmudiyah Hospital. Task Force 4-27 got in contact with the director of the hospital and coordinated for the mobile clinic to go out and do this. They provide everything, and we help them use their assets," said Lt. Col. Anne Resty, of Clarinda, Iowa, the brigade's physical therapist.

The hospital then supplies the mobile medical clinic with staff; including a doctor, two nurses, a pharmacy technician, a laboratory technician, a vaccination technician and an emergency room technician. Along with the medical staff, the hospital also provides equipment and medications for the mobile clinic.

"We provide checkups, vaccinations, lab tests, and medications to the people. Today we mainly saw cases of anemia, hypertension, worms, and we saw one case of diabetes," said Adel, medical director and manager of the Lutifiyah Public Health Center.

The students of the Kinana School and residents from the nearby area received vaccinations, medications, and various other health services from the staff of the mobile medical clinic.

"Germs in the water being used are a big problem along with people getting sick from the contamination. It's very hard for people to get clean water, so we gave water treatment pills to the people who came today," said Adel.

In addition to being a good location for treating children, the school serves as a central location for people of the nearby area.

"This was the first time I've done this and I felt very good about serving the population outside the clinic," said Adel.