ERBIL, Kurdistan Region- Thousands of wounded Peshmerga soldiers are being treated in public hospitals for war injuries across the Kurdistan Region, says the ministry’s health chief, and lack of funding has halted a government project to build a specialized military hospital to give the soldiers the care they need. “We have a high number of wounded Peshmerga fighters who are receiving treatment in hospitals inside Kurdistan,” Maj. Gen. Muhsin Rasheed, director of the Peshmerga Ministry’s health department told Rudaw. “Peshmerga fighters are suffering because they are treated in public hospitals.” Maj. Rasheed said that the ministry had plans to build a military hospital for its Peshmerga who sustain injuries in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) and that a site for the project has been designated but “But due to the lack funds there is no progress,” Maj. Rasheed who in the meantime is a military doctor explained that it is not practical to try to treat wounded soldiers in the same atmosphere as ordinary people “because most of the Peshmerga soldiers need extra care,” More than 1,500 Peshmerga have been killed in the war against ISIS in the last two years and up nearly 8,700 have been wounded. In an interview with Rudaw in June, Maj. Rasheed said that many of the 1,500 Peshmerga deaths could have been prevented if there were proper medical facilities on the frontlines to treat the soldiers at the time of injury with good follow up in hospitals later on. He urged the international community, especially members of the anti-ISIS coalition to help the Kurdish government build military hospitals in Erbil and other cities as well as mobile clinics on the frontlines. “For any war frontline we have medical team and we do provide the first treatment for the wounded Peshmerga until we deliver it to a health center for the second treatment, but our capacity is limited and the number of Ambulances, health centers , doctors and medical supplies are not enough,” he explained. Maj. Rasheed revealed that of the thousands of wounded Peshmerga only a small number have been treated abroad: 58 in India, 35 in Jordan, 11 in Iran, 10 in Germany, 8 in Hungary, 6 in UAE.
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