By comparison, in east Aleppo, where medical staff say they are being systematically targeted by the Syrian regime’s airstrikes, aid groups estimate that there are only 35 doctors remaining — one for every 7,143 people.
“This problem is not new. When I was myself in med school in 1995, many of my friends went abroad,” Dr. Sabah Mohammed, the manager of the largest hospital in the city, told Al-Monitor. “But it worsened last year when the government cut salaries,” he said, referring to the situation as a new “brain drain.”
Since the military coup in 1968, consecutive waves of brain drain have dried up the number of trained medical personnel in Iraq, including after the US-led invasion in 2003, which led to a bloody civil war that paved the way for the rise of IS and yet another exodus.
A Middle East Institute article by Joseph Sassoon estimates that Iraq lost “probably 25-35% of its overall medical staff” just in the 18 months following Saddam Hussein’s fall. “With the departure of its professional elite, Iraq lost hundreds of years’ worth of experience,” Sassoon said.
Other factors explaining the current shortage is the inappropriate division of available health workers among the Kurdish provinces, as well as an insufficient number of students enrolled in Dahuk’s medical college over the past few years, Ismet said. And even an increase in med students now won’t have a positive impact until after they graduate in six years.
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