“I do not think I'm ever returning to Mosul, especially since I established my clinic and medical center in Erbil, and my house in Mosul has been taken over and destroyed,” Dr. Saadallah al-Ghanim, who has at least 25 years of experience working with cancerous tumors, told Al-Monitor.
In Erbil, one cannot help but notice the large number of doctors whose medical signs carry the Mosul Medical College logo. These are doctors who are well-known by Mosul residents and consult with patients from various Iraqi provinces. This comes amid a scarcity of medical personnel in the eastern areas of Mosul that have been under the control of the Iraqi security forces for almost three months.
At least three huge hospitals, most notably Al Salam Teaching Hospital and Al Khansaa Hospital for pediatrics and maternity care, have been destroyed. These institutions have yet to receive financial support for their rehabilitation.
The Ministry of Health had issued an administrative order earlier to force its displaced personnel to return to their liberated areas, but it subsequently issued an order for the personnel to wait until the liberation of Mosul is complete.
“I will be back if the ministry pays my 2½ years' unpaid salaries, but I am not going to be asked to return without having a source of income for my family,” Safaa, a nurse who has been displaced to the Kurdistan region, told Al-Monitor.
“The Ministry of Health has not managed to pay the salaries of Mosul's 10,000 employees in the liberated areas,” head of the parliamentary health committee Fares al-Breifkani said during a parliamentary session last week.
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