KRG urges Iraq to compensate for drug shortages caused by refugee influx

SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region—Kurdish health officials say that they can only provide one third of what the region needs of medicines and that what the Iraqi federal government has supplied amounts to less than half of the region’s medical institutions need.

The health department of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) says that due to the ongoing financial crisis and lack of funds, it receives medicine from pharmaceutical firms on loan to be paid back at a later date.

“The medicine Baghdad is sending us accounts for nearly 45% of our needs,” Dr Khalis Qadir, KRG Health Ministry’s spokesman, told Rudaw. “We have to cover the rest of our shortage ourselves.”

The deputy manager of Sulaimani health department also told Rudaw that the Iraqi government stopped giving the Kurdish region its fair share of medicine two years ago when relations between Erbil and Baghdad began to deteriorate.

“The federal government was sending us adequate drug supplies before the problems erupted between Baghdad and Erbil in 2014,” said Dr Jaafar Haider, disputing the figures of the health ministry saying that Baghdad sent 60 percent of the medical needs.

More than 1.8 million refugees and internally displaced people (IDP) the region is accommodating also have put further strain on the health ministry as in most cases the Kurdistan Region has to provide medical care for them, according to Dr Khalis.

The director of drug warehouses and distribution center in Erbil, Dr Sinan Ibrahim, told Rudaw that drug supplies often last only ten days at this warehouses and this poses a risk in the long-run.

 

However, Khalis said that if Baghdad provided medicine for the refugees Erbil could find the budget to keep its hospital shelves full.

“The Finance Ministry has dedicated some budget for us to buy drugs and other medical equipment and we have asked Baghdad to provide adequate medicines for the refugees and the wounded of Mosul offensive and also increase the amount they are currently sending to the Kurdistan Region.” Dr Khalis explained.

He added that the health department’s current six billion Iraqi dinars falls short of the 10 billion needed, which he hoped Baghdad would make up for.