Ahmed Dubardani, a member of the Nineveh Provincial Council’s health committee, told Rudaw that the hospital is in its final stages and is “scheduled to be handed over by the implementing company next month and officially opened.”
He said that the hospital has 100 beds and is equipped with advanced medical equipment, and it will also reduce the pressure on the Kurdistan Region’s hospitals.
“The opening of the hospital will reduce pressure on the Kurdistan Region and other provinces, and reduce the burden on the people, as they had to travel a long distance for treatment which required a lot of expense,” Dubardani said.
As cancer rates rise in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, there is a shortage of treatment facilities. In Sulaimani province, Hiwa Hospital is the only facility offering cancer treatment, drawing patients from across Iraq and the Kurdish regions of Syria, Turkey, and Iran.
Statistics from the Kurdistan Region’s health ministry in November revealed that cancer rates in the Region have more than doubled over the last decade.
Experts have blamed worsening air pollution in the country as the primary cause of high cancer rates.