Restoring specialized medical care for returnee communities in West Anbar districts, Iraq

The emergency unit that is annexed to the hospital offers services that include treatment and stabilization of medical and surgical emergency cases, laboratory and referral services for 41000 returnees in Ana and Rawa districts and from the neighboring villages. It will reduce gaps in secondary health care service delivery by bringing emergency medical services closer to the people in need while the ambulance call center will respond to emergency calls form patients who need immediate transfer to health facilities. Dary NGO, WHO’s implementing partner, is managing the facility.

The initiative by WHO follows a request from the Anbar health authorities to restore and equip hospitals affected by the 3-year crisis in Iraq. In 2017, more than half of Anbar’s health infrastructure including hospitals in Ana, Al-Qaim, Rawa, and Al-Obaidy were either looted and/or destroyed. As a result, many departments in this hospital and three other hospitals remain closed and more resources are required to reopen them.

WHO also supports the Ministry of Health in Iraq with medicines and other medical supplies and to strengthen primary health care services, human resources which contributes to the prevention of non‐communicable diseases.

This marks a significant step towards the transition from emergency response to early recovery, reconstruction, and resilience-building to enable attaining regularity in health care service-delivery especially at this point where the situation in conflict-affected parts of Iraq remains unpredictable, made worse by the destruction of primary health care facilities that remain closed to date.

Thanks to the United States Agency for International Development Office (USAID)/ The Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) that generously funded the project and supported the initiative.