Isis mimics Britain's NHS with 'Islamic State Health Service ISHS'

The Islamic State (Isis) seems to have taken the British National Health Service (NHS) as a model for the launch of what its propaganda machine has portrayed as jihadists' own healthcare system.

An image depicting a doctor in a light blue gown with a stethoscope round his neck on a digital background reminiscent of medical television series was circulated on social media and blogs linked to the Islamist group.

"Islamic State Health Service – ISHS," a caption reads. "Coming Soon", it added, announcing the upcoming release of an introductory video to the 'terror NHS', which is purportedly to be launched in the group's de facto capital of Raqqa, northern Syria.

The ISHS logo – white capital letters on a blue background – strongly resembles that of the British health service.

The reference was described as "bizarre" by Charlie Winter, a researcher for the London-based counter-extremism Quilliam Foundation Think Tank, who tweeted:

The release falls within IS's attempts to portray itself as a functioning state rather than an extremist group.

The jihadi militants previously boasted about creating their own mint to produce a new coin-based currency and are attempting to control all aspects of public life, from education to justice and taxes, in the territories they hold in Iraq and Syria.

Earlier this week it emerged that IS banned Nike clothing and footwear as part of a widespread crackdown on "sexual" words and terms, while a few weeks earlier the group released photos of its militants restructuring a hospital in Raqqa damaged by the raging conflict.

In an interview with The Atlantic, radical preacher Anjem Choudary said that according to a strict interpretation of Sharia law, Islamic authorities personified by the self-styled caliph have the onus to provide housing, food, clothing and all services to their subjects in return for their obedience.

In March however, Abu Mohammed an activist living in Raqqa said that under IS rule, Islamist fighers were granted free access to health care but common citizen not.

Speaking to IBTimes UK Mohammed said that private health clinics in the city had been closed and the public hospital in Tel Abyad was open but with high prices for treatment.