Restoration works in East Erbil Emergency Hospital complete and specialized services resumed before patients

The hospital is currently functioning as the main facility providing life-saving emergency services to a population of approximately 1 million people, including the refugees and internally displaced population accommodated in Erbil where other health facilities were converted to manage COVID-19 patients.

“WHO Iraq has built a fruitful partnership with the health authorities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq reflected through the series of construction and rehabilitation of health facilities in the Region,” said Dr. Adham Ismail, WHO Representative and Head of Mission in Iraq.

“The project we are jointly inaugurating its resumption of full capacity functions in Erbil today will support a large segment of the in-need population for essential and specialized health care services. We also believe the facility will considerably fill the gap created by the designation of the majority of health facilities in the KR-I to COVID 19 treatment,” Dr. Ismail added.

Like the rest of the World, the emergence of the new SARS Cov 2 has overwhelmed the health system in Iraq in general and Kurdistan Region in particular due to the presence of hundreds of thousands of refugees and IDPs who are residing in the region. This, coupled with the growing needs for advanced health care services, has necessitated the mobilization of all efforts and resources to continue improving the existing health facilities functionally and structurally.

The hospital restoration project supported by WHO with funds from the US Department of States’ Bureau for Population, Refugees and Migration (BPRM) aimed to rehabilitate selected departments in the facility according to international standards and in line with the approved medical protocols to provide the best quality services.

The hospital in-patient wards and intensive care units were refurbished and a total of 57 horizontal bed head units with related furniture, equipment, and accessories like the oxygen system pipeline, medical gas, and suction system, were installed to upgrade its capacity to accommodate about 1000 outpatients and 60 in-patient cases daily.

The World Health Organization would like to thank the US Department of States’ Bureau for Population, Refugees and Migration (BPRM) for their contribution in supporting the works of renovation and to Heevi local implementing partner for carrying out the restoration works.