QAYARRAH, Iraq — As she waits outside Qayarrah General Hospital, Haleema Yousef clutches two things to her chest. The first is her 2-month-old daughter Remas, who was born somewhere along her journey of displacement, as Yousef and her six other children fled fighting in Mosul. The baby smiles softly but quivers with cold despite being wrapped in layers of yellow and pink blankets.
With her other hand, Yousef grips a piece of paper from another health facility, referring the infant here. Of the dozen patients and families like her queueing outside, almost all have a similar document.
Medical referrals, written and stamped with diagnoses and case details, are usually an anomaly in the frontlines of ongoing conflict. But around the city of Mosul, which government security forces are still fiercely fighting to retake from the Islamic State militant group, they are increasingly becoming the norm — part of a uniquely defined chain of care.
About the author
Elizabeth Dickinson@dickinsonbeth
Elizabeth Dickinson is a former associate editor at Devex. Based in the Middle East, she has previously served as Gulf correspondent for The National, assistant managing editor at Foreign Policy, and Nigeria correspondent at The Economist. Her writing also appeared in The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Politico Magazine, and Newsweek, among others.
