NHS treated me like a beggar, says doctor who became a jihadi
A doctor who deserted his family to join Islamic State ranted about the NHS, saying medics were treated like beggars.
Issam Abuanza, 37, who worked in Britain for seven years before going to Syria, complained that foreign medics had to abandon their dignity to find a hospital posting.
the Palestinian-born doctor, who is married with two young children, made the rant shortly before he arrived here in 2006.
He told overseas graduates sitting tests on their English language and clinical skills that they needed anti-psychotic drugs to work in the NHS.
In his comments in April 2006 on a bulletin board he added that getting a job was difficult because ‘very now and then you are begging the human resources or the consultant to give you a locum position’.
He warned colleagues to leave the following back home: ‘Your dignity because you are a beggar here; your career, no progress as either locum or clinical observer, you won’t write more than that in your cV; your future, there isn’t any; and your family, no doubt.’
despite his outburst, Abuanza was able to secure a position at Glan clwyd Hospital in rhyl, North Wales, where he worked between May 2007 and July 2009.
He also worked at Scarborough Hospital, where he posted an online video of himself praying in the oncall room.
Later he moved with his family to Sheffield, where he is reported to have been combining shifts as a registrar with running an online company selling kaftan dresses.
He wrote that 100 per cent of the profits of his business were going to Syria – raising fears the cash may have funded jihadis.
Abuanza, who comes from a family of doctors and dentists, is thought to be the first NHS clinician to join IS.
He trained as a doctor in Iraq in 2002 before gaining British
‘Encouraging slaughter’
citizenship. the medic’s postings on social media reveal how he became increasingly radicalised.
Just five years ago, his Youtube account was full of pop music and children’s shows, with Bruno Mars, Peppa Pig and Play-doh toys among the videos he liked.
But, by 2015, the doctor was posting sickening comments praising the charlie Hebdo terror attack in Paris and encouraging the slaughter of women and children.
In one chilling post he said he wished that a Jordanian pilot burnt alive in a cage by IS had taken longer to die. In a rant in March 2014 he expressed his disgust at doctors having to treat drunken yobs brought to casualty by police
that July, Abuanza fled Sheffield, leaving his 30-year-old wife penniless and with no means to support their two daughters aged six and four.
Since then he has revelled in his job treating injured jihadis in Syria where IS registration documents show that he is a specialist in endocrinology, the treatment of hormonal imbalances.
A photo on his Facebook page shows him wearing scrubs and carrying a gun in a holster. In another he is wearing combat fatigues, cradling an assault rifle and reading the Koran.
relishing his work dealing with gunshot wounds and amputations, he wrote: ‘We get a lot of spinal injuries which cause the paralysis of mujahideens because we don’t have spinal surgeons.’
Abuanza, who crossed into Syria in July 2014 – soon after IS declared itself as an Islamic caliphate – has appealed for other Western medics to join him.
His sister Najla Abuanza has said his parents will never forgive him, adding: ‘My dad’s wish was to see him before he dies. He has spent all his money on him and his education and this is what he does.’
A next door neighbour said: ‘His wife was absolutely devastated. She was left broke when he went, they were cleaned out.’