Iraqis have been living on the impact of bitter political differences since the parliamentary elections last October, between the forces of the Iranian-backed coordination framework, and the Sadrist movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr, due to the file of forming a government.
Parliament sessions were disrupted due to Sadrist protests and political incompatibility, without approving the current year’s budget, which caused paralysis of many economic and social joints, including hospitals for cancer patients.
The Health Committee of the Iraqi Parliament confirmed the lack of cancer treatment drugs in proportion to the increase in the number of patients, due to the absence of sufficient financial allocations to purchase them.
Committee member Basem Al-Gharabi told the official newspaper, Al-Sabah, that “the committee inquired about the lack of cancer treatment drugs in line with the needs of the centers and hospitals specialized in this. prices worldwide.
black market
These were the most prominent statements of an official in the Iraqi Ministry of Health, in an interview with “Sky News Arabia” regarding the crisis:
• “The number of cancer patients is on the rise, which represents a major challenge facing the Ministry, and the political crisis has already affected cancer patients, and others.”
• “The treatments for patients are not fully received, and there is an acute shortage of some medicines.”
• “This has caused widespread reliance on the black market and drug smuggling to increase the demand for it, which carries risks.”
• “The Ministry of Health has tended to provide alternatives, even if they are not sufficient, to fill the shortage of treatments.”
• “Many patients who were waiting for their roles in receiving chemotherapy doses, for example, have had their treatment postponed until the drug is available.”
• “Some of the therapeutic materials cost $250, and this is a large amount for most segments of Iraqi society.”
• “We submitted a lot of requests, whether to the import company or the parliament, with the aim of interfering and resolving the matter, but to no avail.”
• “Hospitals for cancer patients entered a complicated stage due to the lack of medicines, which confused the schedules for receiving doses and caused some of them to be postponed.”
agony journey
The company affiliated with the Ministry of Health concludes contracts with subcontractors for importing medicines, based on the financial payments it receives from the state budget once a year, and only for the most common diseases.
Iman Ahmed, 37, a resident of Baghdad, says that she was waiting for her turn to receive her medication, but she received a notice that the appointment was postponed for months due to the lack of treatments.
In an interview with “Sky News Arabia”, she pointed out that “some of these medicines cannot be purchased from abroad in any way, and this is prevented by the Ministry of Health, which has exacerbated the suffering of patients. There is no clear intervention from the concerned authorities to end the suffering of this oppressed segment.” .
She also revealed that “what happened killed my hope and made me feel the harshness of the situation,” noting “the impact of the conflict of power on the various classes of society, such as the poor, the needy, the sick and the needy, and those registered with social welfare.”
Law No. 39 of 1994 considers the illegal removal of medicines, supplies, medical devices and other spare materials and tools from official health institutions as a crime of the national economy, the perpetrator of which is punishable.
Warnings
The head of the Cancer Council in the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Khudair Al-Rawaq, warned against resorting to smuggled drugs, due to the risks they carry and the possibility of cheating in them despite their exorbitant prices, pointing to a shortage of medicines supplied by the competent company.
Al-Rawaq added to “Sky News Arabia”, that “hospitals for cancer patients are now seeking to find possible alternatives to meet this challenge, until they are provided by the government.”
He stressed that “patients were affected by this situation,” noting that “the authorities annually record about 30,000 cases of various types of cancer.”
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