Iraq: EMERGENCY Opens War Surgery Clinic in Erbil

EMERGENCY’s Surgical Centre in Erbil guarantees medical assistance to people wounded in the fighting in Mosul.

As the conflict in Mosul intensifies and the humanitarian crisis worsens, EMERGENCY has begun working in the Erbil Emergency Hospital in cooperation with Iraqi Kurdistan’s Health department since January 2017. The hospital is a surgical centre that guarantees medical assistance to victims of the conflict.

Over the past few months, the number of patients arriving at the Emergency Hospital has been constantly increasing. EMERGENCY has decided to work in Erbil and support the national healthcare system in order to offer medical treatment to the wounded population 24 hours a day.“We have decided to intervene, to respond to the growing need for war surgery. Mosul’s population is already living through a bloody war. People who need medical treatment are having trouble getting to hospitals. In their place, local health facilities, doctors, and nurses are trying to keep pace with the flow of the wounded, which keeps growing. We want to be sure that civilians caught in the conflict have access to free and quality treatment,” explains Emanuele Nannini, Deputy Coordinator of the EMERGENCY Humanitarian Office.

“We have decided to intervene, to respond to the growing need for war surgery. Mosul’s population is already living through a bloody war. People who need medical treatment are having trouble getting to hospitals. In their place, local health facilities, doctors, and nurses are trying to keep pace with the flow of the wounded, which keeps growing. We want to be sure that civilians caught in the conflict have access to free and quality treatment,” explains Emanuele Nannini, Deputy Coordinator of the EMERGENCY Humanitarian Office.

With the number of patients arriving in other Emergency Hospitals in the country steadily rising, and the national health authorities struggling to cope with the increasing demand, EMERGENCY made the decision to return to the surgical centre it had previously run in Erbil. Constructed in 1998 for war and anti-personnel mine victims, EMERGENCY successfully handed over the facility to local authorities in 2005. 

“We are returning to work in Erbil for the first time since 2005 when our surgical centre was handed over to local authorities as Iraqi Kurdistan seemed to be stable and safe,” says Nannini. “Today we are there again, to face the terrible consequences of one of the largest and most complex recent humanitarian crises: the Mosul conflict.”

The new centre will specialise in war surgery and EMERGENCYwill pay particular attention to training medical personnel in this field. The facility will also undergo extensive renovations, increasing the number of available beds from 24 to 68. Operating 24/7, the centre will provide support for the Trauma Stabilisation Points, run my the national health authorities near the front lines, where the wounded are taken before being transferred to secondary health facilities in Erbil.