ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Works are underway to establish a hospital for children and a cancer treatment center in the Kurdish-majority Hasaka province in northeast Syria (Rojava), a local health official told Rudaw on Wednesday, amid ongoing efforts to restore public services in the province.
Khaled al-Khaled, director of health in Hasaka, told Rudaw's Nalin Hassan that he expected the children's hospital to open "in early September or early October, initially operating with a 40- to 50-bed capacity.”
The facility "will ease the pressure on Hasaka National Hospital, where pediatric departments are consistently operating at full capacity," Khaled said, further unveiling plans to establish the province's first specialized cancer treatment center, set to be inaugurated in October.
“The cancer treatment center will focus on chemotherapy rather than radiation therapy," he explained, adding that "given the travel difficulties and hardships cancer patients face, this center will spare patients in the province from having to travel to other cities for treatment.”
The Syrian interim leadership began administering and rehabilitating public service projects in Hasaka in February.
The efforts came in the aftermath of the landmark January 29 agreement between Damascus and Rojava, which followed weeks of escalation that saw Syrian government forces and affiliated armed groups seize territory previously held by Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in eastern Aleppo, Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, and Hasaka provinces.
The SDF, which serves as the de facto military force in Rojava and remains a key partner of the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat the Islamic State (ISIS), had controlled these areas since expelling the extremist group during the war against it.
Under the agreement, a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire was established, alongside provisions calling for the integration of civil and military institutions in Rojava into the Syrian state.
Since its implementation, several SDF-linked figures have assumed government roles, including positions within the defense and internal security structures, as well as local administration posts in Hasaka province.
SDF-appointed Hasaka Governor Nour al-Din Ahmed on Thursday told Rudaw that about 70 percent of the institutional integration in Rojava has been completed.
Despite this, Khaled on Wednesday noted that as 1,448 health workers in Rojava have been integrated under the Syrian health ministry, "efforts are underway to address the employment status of some 184 other personnel.”
"Our workforce [in Hasaka] currently stands at approximately 4,200 to 4,300, but fully operating our infrastructure will require around 5,000 employees," he noted, underlining the unequal distribution of health workers across the province and rural health clinics, where "physician shortages remain acute."
