Five hospitals are scheduled to be built in different areas of Nineveh Province, four of which have had their foundation stones laid and the other has been approved for construction.
The hospitals will be built in Shingal (Sinjar) district and the sub-districts of Zummar, Bashiqa, Bahzani and Wanky, within the budget for regional development and the Iraq Reconstruction Fund, according to Nineveh Provincial Council member, Muhammad Jassim, who stressed that the council "will monitor and follow up on the stages of their construction."
Firas Hawar, a resident of Zummar district, told (KirkukNow) that "establishing the hospital is very necessary for us because there is only one health center in the sub-district that is unable to provide all health services to citizens," adding, "The residents of the district and its outskirts are forced to go to Mosul or Dohuk to receive treatment and undergo surgeries."
Zummar sub-district includes 80 villages and its population reaches 150,000 people.
Even for childbirth and surgeries for pregnant women, we have to go to other cities
"Even for childbirth and surgeries for pregnant women, we have to go to other cities," Firas added.
Zummar district is located northwest of Nineveh and the distance from Zummar to Mosul is 75 kilometers and to Dohuk is 93 kilometers. Firas pointed to "the poor condition of the road and the high cost of transportation."
"We hope that the hospital will be opened as soon as its construction is completed and that it is provided with the necessary equipment, health personnel, and medicines so that we do not have to travel all these distances."
Iraq’s healthcare system which was once one of the most advanced in the region now is in serious crisis. There’s a shortage of drugs, buildings and the medical staff to administer it. Over the past three decades the country has been ravaged by Iraqi-Iran war, Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, ousting of Saddam regime followed by sectarian violence, the war against al-Qaeda and the rise of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria ISIS.
The political chaos after 2003, pushed an estimated 15,000 out of 52,000 registered Iraqi doctors to leave the country. The young student doctors primarily seek training and life abroad rather than permanent state employment.
As for the hospital that is scheduled to be built in Shingal, with a capacity of 100 beds, the foundation stone for the project was laid in September 2024.
"Instead of one hospital, two other hospitals were supposed to be built, one in Sinjar and the other in Sinuny or Al-Qahtaniya Giruzer) sub-district,” Shaker Khidir, a resident of Shingal, said.
“Citizens are waiting for the completion of the project, not the foundation stone."
Shingal District residents must go to government-subsidized public hospitals in Dohuk - 200 km away - or Mosul - more than 125 km away - for doctors specializing in heart diseases, internal medicine, fractures, and others.
Sinjar Hospital and most other health institutions were destroyed during the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria ISIS (2014-2015).
Provincial Council member, Mohammed Jassim, said that "work is ongoing to establish four hospitals, except for the Wanky Hospital, for which approvals have also been obtained."
He explained that "each of these hospitals will be completed within a specific period, and the Provincial Council will follow up on the progress of work on the projects and inform the concerned authorities if any problems arise."
“We have witnessed the laying of the foundation stone for many projects, but work on them has stopped,” Khidir added. “We demand that these projects do not have the same destiny and to be be completed quickly.”
