Doha: As part of its annual medical convoy programme, Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has concluded a medical convoy project benefitting 60 families of internally displaced people (IDPs) and Syrian refugees in Erbil, Iraq.
It was implemented by QRCS’s representation office in Iraq, in cooperation with the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS), the Erbil Health Department, health centres at camps, humanitarian organisations operating there, the Barzani Charity Foundation, and the Rizgary Teaching Hospital.
With a total budget of QR103,777, the project benefited 60 families including 25 displaced Iraqi families, 25 Syrian refugee families, and 10 poor families from the host community. The purpose of the project was to provide secondary health care services for Iraqi IDPs and Syrian refugees in Erbil, by performing surgeries in the specialities of general surgery and oncology and covering all treatment and transportation costs.
In coordination with IRCS and the Erbil Health Department, 60 beneficiaries were selected based on certain criteria, such as the patients referred from primary health care centres at camps, patients from families with no breadwinner, families supported by women, families with no source of livelihood, and families with more than five members.
Priority was given to under-five children, adults older than 60 years of age, patients with cancer or tumours, patients with physical or mental disabilities, patients with disabling injuries, and patients supporting their families.
The list of surgeries performed over the duration of the project included inguinal herniorrhaphy, umbilical herniorrhaphy, incisional herniorrhaphy, laparoscopic cholecystectomy, thyroidectomy, colectomy, mastectomy, splenectomy, hemorrhoid and anal fissure, hydatid cysts, tonsillectomy, cryptorchidism, and obstetrics and gynecology.
Before the start of the project, a field visit was made to the host hospital in order to assess the quality of services, mechanisms of work, and disinfection and infection control protocols. The hospital examined the patients at the surgical clinic, conducted medical and diagnostic tests, ensured pre-operative care, and provided post-procedure care until the patients recovered and were released from hospital.
In Iraq, over 4 million people suffer difficult humanitarian conditions. The number of people in need of aid and health services is about 2.8 million, mostly in the northern and central governorates (Nineveh, Anbar, Erbil, Diyala, and Salah Al Din).
Even though many camps have been closed and many IDPs and refugees returned to their home towns, there remain some 350,000 IDPs inside camps and 500,000 outside of camps in dire need for basic health services. Out of the 29 camps still open in Iraq, 25 are located in Iraqi Kurdistan, sheltering 180,000 Iraqi IDPs.
