Nasiriyah Heart Hospital appeals for donations to sustain services
Shafaq News- Nasiriyah
Nasiriyah Heart Hospital, the largest specialist center for cardiac disease and surgery in southern Iraq, appealed on Monday to businesspeople, traders, contractors, and the public for donations, citing a financial crisis and shortages of medicines, supplies, equipment, and furniture.
In a statement, the hospital said the shortages were straining its ability to keep services running for patients and asked for contributions to help maintain them.
In July, Health Minister Abdul Hussein al-Moussawi said the government faced “a liquidity catastrophe” that had made paying salaries its priority. Adila Hamoud, head of parliament's Health and Anti-Narcotics Committee, has warned that the healthcare sector could slide into a crisis that would be hard to contain if the country's financial problems persist.
Spending on the Health Ministry in 2025 came to about 4.8 trillion dinars (3.7 billion dollars), according to the budget monitor's report. With the 2025 budget set at 200 trillion dinars (around 154 billion dollars), health accounted for roughly 2.4 percent of total spending. Against a population estimated at 47.5 million at the start of 2026, based on United Nations data, that works out to about 78 dollars per person for the year.
Read more: Iraq’s healthcare system nears collapse: Doctors leave, hospitals overflow
On Sunday, Iraq's Federal Integrity Commission, the state anti-corruption body, urged the government to speed up work on two long-delayed hospitals in Baghdad, saying the stalled projects are limiting the capital's public health capacity. A field team from the commission found Al-Shaala Hospital 92.7 percent complete and Al-Hurriya Hospital at 73 percent, and said the Health Ministry had not fully paid contractors, with the supply of medical equipment, machinery, and furniture still unfinished.
