The Health Ministry is collaborating with the Interior Ministry to provide a safer environment for doctors. In an August Cabinet meeting, the ministry demanded the enactment of the Doctors Act No. 26 of 2013, which imposes a fine of almost $9,000 and three years in prison on any person who threatens or assaults a doctor.
“The ministry is keen to follow up on the incidents of threatening doctors, and when a video was posted on Facebook in September 2014 showing a person threatening doctors, the ministry called the Doctors Syndicate in Misan to file a lawsuit against him," Rifaq al-Araji, acting spokesman for the Health Ministry, told Al-Monitor.
On Sept. 6, the Iraqi Council of Ministers asked the Higher Judicial Council to take legal action against anyone who attacks a doctor while doing his job.
Salih al-Hasnawi, a member of the Iraqi parliament's Health Committee, told Al-Monitor there are several reasons doctors are targets, including "the people’s lack of awareness about the doctors’ role in society" and armed groups "seeking to destabilize and spread fear."
Particularly during Iraq's war against IS, which controls two important cities, Mosul and Ramadi, experts agree that promoting the health sector and preventing more doctors from fleeing the country are essential to supporting the war effort, treating the wounded and restoring the people’s trust in the services provided by the Iraqi health sector.
(Extortion image via Shutterstock)
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