A team of doctors and nurses from north London are travelling to Iraq with screening equipment to help train women’s health specialists in the diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer.
The Royal Free, The Whittington and UCL hospitals have donated the machinery which has never been available in the war-torn country.
Dr Reza Abdulkadir, a gynaecological consultant from the Royal Free who is leading the project, said due to lack of equipment and training, women’s health problems are often dealt with drastically.
The team will spend a week in the city of Erbil in northern Iraq, training doctors and nurses from all over the country in an effort to reach out to medical workers in smaller villages and more remote regions.
The country has been ravaged by fighting for decades and opportunities for medical training have been limited.
However, Dr Abdulkadir said there is some hope: “The country is just starting to build itself up again and the younger generation are more aware.”
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