ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – At least three hospitals and a number of health centers are going to be shut down in the Kurdish city of Duhok due to a lack of physicians.
“In 2016 alone, around 100 physicians have left Duhok province and gone abroad, and that has reduced the number of physicians in the province. Therefore we are forced to close three hospitals and many other health centers,” Dr. Nizar Ismat, general manager of Duhok health, told Rudaw.
“In the first phase, three hospitals in the Zakho and Akre districts are going to be shut down as well as many other health centers and departments from public hospitals in a bid to move their employees to other hospitals,” where they will continue working, Ismat explained.
Duhok’s Azadi Teaching Hospital, one of the biggest hospitals in the city that has a population of 1.4 million, is also suffering from a lack of physicians. “In three important floors of the hospital, we have only one patrolling physician where we used to have 12,” said Ismat.
The health department is trying to relocate its staff in order to do its best to provide the best healthcare they can, despite diminished numbers of health professionals.
In the Emergency Hospital in the Akre district of Duhok, “The number of the physicians has dramatically decreased and we are trying to move the remaining ones to another hospital in the town. We think it is better to have one strong hospital than two weakened ones.”
Health centers in Duhok are also affected, he added. “They are also running out of physicians and nurses are running them now. Most probably not even one single physician will be remaining in these centers also.”
An estimated 2,000,000 people, including Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees live in Duhok province.
According to the Iraqi Health Ministry’s standards, 16 physicians are required to serve every 10,000 people. But in Duhok today, there are only 4 physicians for every 10,000 people.
Dr. Ismat is calling on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to ramp up its efforts and make grassroots reforms to the process of employing physicians in the region.
“In the past, physicians would be hired in their home city. For example, last year 50 physicians were hired in Duhok, 100 in Erbil and 90 in Sulaimani,” he explained. But he thinks doctors should be sent by the health ministry to where they are needed most. “This system has to be changed. Wherever physicians are needed, they have to be employed there.”
Zakho district, on the Turkish border, is also suffering from a lack of physicians. The region has a population of around 410,000. Of its 12 doctors, only two come from the area.
“In 2014 we had 42 physicians. But there are only 12 left here and only two of them are from Zakho. The other 10 are from Duhok,” Dr. Qarani Saeed, general manager of Zakho health, told Rudaw.
Saeed urged KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani and the health ministry to solve the problem.
“If the government does not solve this problem by the end of this year, we will be forced to move the remaining physicians at Shaabaniki Emergency Hospital to Bedari hospital and close it,” Saeed warned.
Hundreds of people, including health professionals, have left the region and gone to Europe to escape the economic crisis that has gripped the Kurdistan Region since 2014.
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