Shafaq News- Al-Sulaymaniyah

Hospitals in Al-Sulaymaniyah province, Kurdistan Region, particularly pediatric and maternity facilities, are facing a severe shortage of laboratory supplies and medical equipment, health officials warned on Monday, adding that the situation could further strain patient care services.

The director of Dr. Jamal Ahmad Rashidi Children’s Hospital, physician Kuyan Zahir, told Shafaq News that only 10 ventilators are currently available across the children’s and maternity hospitals in Al-Sulaymaniyah, explaining that “all units are in continuous operation, placing them under significant strain and increasing the risk of sudden failure.”

“The lack of backup equipment and routine maintenance poses a direct threat to patient safety,” Zahir cautioned, particularly in neonatal intensive care units where respiratory support is critical.

Hersch Salim, deputy director general of Al-Sulaymaniyah Health Directorate, said the expiry of maintenance contracts for medical devices has resulted in a large number of machines going out of service, noting that restoring or replacing the equipment “requires substantial financial allocations that have not been provided by the Ministry of Finance.”

“Some operational devices were secured through charitable contributions,” Salim said, while others were purchased following “urgent pressure on the Ministry of Health to address shortages.”

He argued that the core challenge stems from the suspension of maintenance agreements, leaving the remaining active equipment vulnerable to breakdown without technical support. Salim also noted that only two MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scanners are currently operational across all hospitals in Sulaymaniyah, while the rest remain out of service. “There are proposals to dispose of non-functional equipment as scrap, though no government decision has yet been taken to repair or replace it.”