A special hospital with 100-beds for cancer treatment inaugurated in Kirkuk, with a capital of 1.4 billion Iraqi Dinars IQD ($940,000) funded by charities.
The 3-storey special hospital offers state-subsidized service for 14,000 cases of cancer registered in Kirkuk.
The hospital was inaugurated by acting governor of Kirkuk Rakan Al-Jiburi at the presence of representatives of five European and American countries tracking the issue of IDPs and rebuilding their areas once controlled by the extremist militants of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria ISIS.
Ali Hammadi, assistant of Kirkuk governor for technical issues, said the administration of Kirkuk province has decided to provide all the need of the hospital for the first six months "and we work to supply it with all the needs."
In the name of Kirkuk administration, Hammadi hailed the donors backed the project per international health standards "yet still it requires more medical equipments and supplies."
Kirkuk May 30, 2021- The building of special hospital for cancer. Photo by Goran Baban.
Niyaz Ahmed, director of the hospital delivered a speech in the opening ceremony. "10 years ago, we had only one room for cancer diseases in Azadi hospital, later turned into a center and thank God, now it is a big hospital."
Ahmed called on the charity donors and the government to support them "in providing medicine and stat-of-the-art medical equipments as the hospital offers service for all the different ethnicities of the city with no discrimination."
The northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, Iraq's second largest oil reserves, is ethnically mixed province for 1.2 million Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmens. It has long been at the center of disputes between Baghdad's Federal government and the Erbil-based autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government KRG.
The hospital is important for Kirkuk since the patients were heading to the hospitals in Kurdistan region.
The foundation stone was laid for another hospital south of Kirkuk 2 years ago funded by the local administration of Kirkuk.
Health sector in Iraq was state-run yet following the ousting of Saddam regime in 2003, private hospitals emerged as a lucrative business in the absence of proper medical service by the state.
