On Saturday, august 18th Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Iraq has confirmed that the construction of the Ibn Sina teaching hospital has started in Baghdad.
Qassim Mohammed Jabbar, the spokesperson for the ministry has stated that, this new hospital is the first among a number of academic institutions that the Ministry of Higher Education is planning to open.
This hospital will be situated in the compound of Bayyaa medical institution, Qadisiyyah, Baghdad and will take up an area of 100 dunams.
Certain departments such as medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, blood, diabetes, bone marrow, pharmacology and nursing college will be situated in the adjoining area.
There will be training, education and research units for both nursing and medical students. Apart from that, there will be operation theaters, emergency area and consultation clinics. All in all the hospital will have 600 rooms and treatment for any kind of emergency will be available here.
According to Jabbar, the design of the hospital will be based upon the international specification and standards, and there will be all the advanced medical equipment. It will become a very significant hospital in Iraq which provides services and teaches medical students.
The director of the projects and reconstruction, Abdul Salam al-Jammas has informed that the cost of the project will be around 220 billion dinars which is roughly about 189 million dollars, and it will take two years to get completed.
He has also added that, the graduates from this hospital will have high level of specialization in the medical science. This will help the development of the public health system and the national development process.
According to al-Jammas, it is the plan of the ministry to build both specialize and general universities in all of the provinces across the country. Some of these universities are already complete and the rest are being constructed at present.
He confirms that the ministry is also planning to develop and add modernity to the universities which exist, so that more number of students can get into higher education within the country. To achieve this goal, the ministry is planning to add new classrooms, halls and laboratories and such facilities.
Chairman of the higher education committee of the parliament Mr. Abd Thiab al-Ajeeli has appreciated this move of the government.
He has opined that, this step will actually compliment the other medicine universities which are under construction right now.
According to the estimation provided by al-Ajeeli, the medical complex created by the teaching hospital along with other departments, colleges and centers will be able to house up to 2000 students and research fellows every year.
In the opinion of al-Ajeeli, “construction and presence of such multi-specialty complexes will help both teaching and research scenario in different areas of medical treatments and this will increase the quality of the health services available in the country at present.”