More and more people in the Kurdistan Region are turning to Iran for medical treatment or diagnosis. Some are disappointed with Kurdistan’s doctors and hospitals. Other patients say they visit Iranian hospitals out of necessity. Many, however, report problems with the medical care abroad, like overcharging or not being able to see the right specialist.
A man in Sulaimani airport, taking his father to Iran, explained why he was seeking medical treatment abroad. “We had to go there because of peoples’ words. People were asking us why weren’t taking him to Iran. We fear that he might die of this illness and then we will regret not taking him abroad for treatment.”
Medical tourism in Iran is on the rise. According to statistics obtained by the Fars News Agency, 30,000 people traveled to Iran in 2012 for medical treatment or diagnosis. This figure reached nearly 200,000 in 2015, according to IRNA. Officials from the Iranian ministry of health have said they aim to increase this number to 500,000 people, a good source of income for the country.
Some patients going to Iran from the Kurdistan Region have been referred by doctors because the treatment they need is not available in the Region. Not every patient going to Iran, however, falls within this category.
In most cases, it is companies and tourism groups that take these patients abroad. These businesses are not staffed with medical professionals though, so they do not provide the right service for their customers.
“I have taken my father here for nerve treatment, yet we were taken to a general surgeon. Some of these companies and groups don’t care about the patients they deal with. What is important to them is to get their money,” Saman said of his father in Tehran, who was returning home disappointed.
A doctor blamed this on the improper advice of doctors and hospitals outside the Kurdistan Region.
“I myself have seen leaflets handed out to people around Sulaimani’s emergency and teaching hospital many times, in which instructions are given to take patients to Iran,” Dr. Mohammed Baban, a joints and rheumatism specialist, said.
It’s alleged that these people pay more than they should due to their inexperience in the matter.
“I was working in a hospital in Ankara, Turkey. I was seeing patients coming daily from Erbil, Sulaimani, and Duhok. I saw how money was being taken from them. They were even mocking them, saying they had oil wells, therefore multiply every price by four to increase the price for them,” Dr. Farid Addad, a kidney transplantation specialist, said.
Some doctors think the healthcare system in the Kurdistan Region is partly responsible for this, making patients seek treatment elsewhere.
“The health system in Kurdistan and Iraq is old, in which the priority is not given to patients,” Dr. Avar Salah told Rudaw.
In general, Kurds believe that “the further they travel, the better treatment they can get,” Dr. Isra Sha Mohammed, a dietetics specialist, said.
“The main problem in Kurdistan is not the inexperience of the doctors. Rather, it is the weakness in the nursing and monitoring of patients while in hospital,” she added.
However, some doctors think that inadequate salaries and bad living conditions of local doctors are the main reason behind the patients of Kurdistan resorting to foreign doctors.
“The government’s lack of attention to the abilities of local doctors is the main reason. Hard work and reward are not taken into consideration here,” Dr. Peshawa Ghafur said.
“You obtain a medical degree after 25 years. How can you be interested to develop your potential when what you get as your salary is only 400,000 Iraqi Dinars [$342 US]?” a doctor who didn’t wish to be identified by name told Rudaw.
The ministry of health of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) believes the reasons for medical tourism vary according to the case.
“Most people who travel abroad are doing so because of imitation and inaccurate propaganda, especially some media outlets which we don’t know why they work on undermining trust between patients and doctors,” Dr. Khalis Qadir, spokesperson for the KRG health ministry, told Rudaw.
“However, some of them go abroad for treatment due to their good financial conditions. This is normal and it exists everywhere in the world,” he added.
Moreover, some of them go abroad “for certain kinds of surgery or diagnosis which are not done in the Kurdistan Region,” he explained.
