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Insufficient medication at major hospital
in Iraq's Kurdistan capital, Erbil
4.2.2012
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February
4, 2012
ERBIL-Hewlêr,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — Patients in Erbil are
complaining that the city’s hospitals do not have
the proper medication and exams to treat and
diagnose chronic diseases.
An official from the health department in Erbil
said, “We don’t have any budget to buy medication
for chronic diseases. The medication we receive from
Baghdad is not enough; that’s why we can’t meet the
patients’ needs.”
The most common chronic diseases in Kurdistan
include diabetes, high blood pressure, heart
conditions, brain diseases and kidney problems.
Dilshad Ghafur, 60, has been suffering from diabetes
and high blood pressure for almost 10 years. He
visits Layla Qasim medical center to receive
medication for diabetes every month. However, Ghafur
said, “I have never received the amount I need. In
the past, I used to receive a 15-day supply of
medication for each month, but now I only receive 10
days’ supply each month.”
Ghafur said doctors are negligent in their exams and
said the Ministry of Health should get involved.
According to a survey by Layla Qasim medical center,
the Kurdistan Region capital’s only diabetic center,
there are over 13,000 diabetic patients and the
center registers around eight new patients every
day.
Hoshyar Abbas, the director of Layla Qasim medical
center, said his team is under pressure from the
huge number of patients -- nearly 400 a day -- that
receive treatment.
“The center is under a heavy load which is why the
doctors can’t examine every patient,” he said. “If
the patients feel differences in the services
between our center and the centers in Sulaimani and
Duhok, it’s because of the huge number of patients
we receive every day -- not because our employees
are careless.”
Abbas urged Iraqi Kurdistan’s Ministry of Health to
open more diabetic centers in Erbil to reduce the
workload on his center and help them provide better
services to patients.
The Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Health receives a
large share of medicine from the central
government’s Ministry of Health in Baghdad, but
according to Abbas the supply always falls short.
“The amount of medication we receive is not enough;
that’s why we have to cut back the amount of
medication we are giving to patients in order to
provide everyone with medication,” Abbas said.
Pishtiwan Hussein, deputy director of the Department
of Health in Erbil, said his department doesn’t have
a budget to make up the shortfall.
“The Ministry of Health in Baghdad provides us 40
percent to 60 percent of the medicine for chronic
illnesses,” he said. “We don’t have any budget to
buy extra medication. That’s why we have to give
patients less than the amount they need.”
Hussein’s department created a committee last year
to assess the budget needed to provide full
medication for patients.
“The committee’s estimate was 1 billion Iraqi dinars,”
he said. “We demand this amount of money from the
2012 budget. We call on Parliament, the Ministry of
Finance,www.ekurd.net
and the Ministry of Health to provide this money for
us in the 2012 budget.”
However, Jamil Ali, chief of staff of Kurdistan’s
Ministry of Health, said, “We have solved the drug
shortage by giving the medical centers enough money
and authority to buy their medical supplies.”
He added, “There is no excuse to give less
medication to patients because we gave them enough
money and the authority to spend up to 60 million
Iraqi dinars to buy medication, according to the
guidance of the Ministries of Health and Finance.”
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