Medical education and health care in Iraqi Kurdistan in the last four decades

Abstract

Medical education and health care in Iraqi Kurdistan were oppressed by the regime of Saddam Hussein for four decades. There have been efforts to revive them by Kurdish and non-Kurdish professionals in and outside Kurdistan with the assistance of various governmental and non-governmental organisations. However, the health care and medical education systems in Iraqi Kurdistan require ongoing international support. Recent global awareness of the war on terror and attempts to rebuild the health care system should not concentrate only on the immediate effects of the war, but they should also focus on the wide-ranging implications of the previous dictatorship regime.

Keywords:

• Health care
• Gulf war
• Iraq
• Iraqi Kurdistan
• Medical education

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mariwan Husni

Mariwan Husni is consultant psychiatrist and local college tutor at Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow. He is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in Canada. He is an Honorary Clinical senior lecturer at Imperial College, London and has published scientific papers in his research interest areas, including trans-cultural psychiatry and psycho-pharmacology.

Fiona Taylor

Fiona Taylor is a SHO trainee in psychiatry at Northwick Park Hospital. She trained at University College London and has a BSc in pharmacology.

Narmen Koye

Narmen Koye is a GP at the Perivale Medical Centre, Middlesex UK. She has worked as a GP in London since 1997 and is a member of the Royal College of General Practitioners. She has an MSc in Medicine and Tropical Medicine.