The conflict in Iraq has had a devastating effect on access to medical care, with over a million displaced people making demands on an already overwhelmed public health system in the Kurdistan Region. Having been cut off from the Iraqi budget since 2014, the Kurdistan Regional Government lacks resources to pay salaries, run public hospitals and deliver needed care. Insecurity has hindered patients trying to travel to clinics and hospitals, and budget cuts and increased patient numbers have resulted in serious drugs shortages, particularly for chronic conditions.
In our daily work at SEED, we often come across IDPs and members the local population who are in urgent need of medicines and surgeries but are unable to access the care they desperately need.
On April 27, 2017 SEED partnered with the IRIS Center at The American University of Iraq – Sulaimani and the Department of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University to host a roundtable discussion on these issues. Read the report here.