Full support of the president for increasing medical capacity
According to Fars news agency’s health reporter, In recent days, with the release of the selection booklet for the 50th course of the medical assistant exam, the problem of the shortage of specialist doctors has once again become the topic of the day in the media. The Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution is one of the institutions that has been trying to solve this problem in the last two years and has two resolutions in this regard. In this regard, Barzoui, the secretary of the science and technology staff of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, has explained the current situation of the country in the field of lack of general doctors and specialists by participating in a television interview.
Is the country facing a shortage of doctors?
At the beginning of the conversation, Barzoui pointed out that the Supreme Council has been involved in the issue of doctor shortage for the past three years and said: As a result of the numerous meetings that were held, with all the resistance and opposition, two plans were approved in the Council. One approval for general medicine and one for dentistry.
He considered the first obstacle to be the lack of accurate statistics on the number of doctors in the country and added: The Ministry of Health had a treatment roadmap that counted the number of doctors one by one. In addition, the organization of the medical system had also provided statistics. According to these statistics, Iran did not have a good situation in terms of doctors per capita among the countries of the world.
In the following, this member of the academic staff of the university examined some of these statistics and pointed out: Iran currently has 130 general practitioners per 100,000 people. While the number of doctors per capita in most countries of the world is between 250 and 300 doctors per 100,000 people.
Pointing out that the number of 130 is the average number of doctors in different regions of the country, he said: the number of doctors per capita in Tehran and big cities sometimes reaches 300 doctors. But in small and low-income cities, such as the southern cities of Kerman and Sistan, sometimes this number reaches 30 doctors per 100,000 people.
This university professor also addressed the shortage of specialist doctors in the country and clarified: the situation is far worse for specialist doctors. In Iran, there are 62 specialist doctors per hundred thousand people. This is despite the fact that among the countries of the world, there are an average of 245 specialist doctors per hundred thousand people. In other words, the average per capita specialist doctor in the world is four times this per capita in Iran.
We are thinking about the aging of Iran
While pointing out that the country will face an aging crisis in the coming years, Barzoui said: training a doctor is a time-consuming process. We should anticipate the country’s need for doctors and plan for it.
This member of the academic staff, reading medical services differently in elderly and non-elderly countries, added: According to some indicators, the number of doctors per capita in elderly countries is 1.5 times that of other countries. Currently, Iran’s doctor per capita is lower than the average of regional countries, European countries and even the elderly countries of the world.
The distribution of doctors is not fair
Barzoui further referred to the map of the distribution of doctors in the country and pointed out: This map, published by the Medical System Organization, shows the inappropriate distribution of doctors in the country. In such a way that, except for Tehran, we are facing a shortage of doctors in other parts of the country. In some areas, such as the south of Kerman province, Sistan, Hormozgan, etc., there is a severe shortage. This inappropriate distribution also applies to dentists.
The secretary of the science and technology headquarters of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution compared different cities in terms of the number of specialist doctors and admitted: According to the statistics, 345 cities of the country do not have neurosurgeons. Also, 91 cities of the country are deprived of having obstetrics and gynecology specialists.
He pointed out the problems of supply and distribution of doctors in the country and said: Some criticize us that you are not a doctor, why are you interfering in these issues? But it is clear that we do not interfere in medical matters, but based on reliable information and statistics, we continue to improve the management of the health system.
Is it possible to increase medical capacity?
In another part of his speech, this university professor examined the possibility of increasing medical capacity in universities of medical sciences. Considering the medical admission capacity of medical sciences universities from the beginning of the revolution until today, he said: In 2016, there were 27 medical schools in the country. In the following years, despite the increase in the number of faculties, the medical admission capacity was always lower than in 1967. By 1990, while the number of medical schools had reached 61, the medical admission capacity was once again the same as in 1967. In the 1990s, the capacity increased and reached eight thousand students by 1400 and ten thousand students last year with the approval of the Shura.
Barzoui also called the increase in the education budget of the Ministry of Health unprecedented and said: According to the budget announced by the Program and Budget Organization, since 2016, the education budget of this ministry has increased from three thousand billion tomans to 15 thousand billion tomans, with an increase of 5 times. Is. The overall budget of the Ministry of Health has also doubled in the last three years.
The government has cooperated well
In the continuation of Barzoui, while thanking the Ministry of Health, he noted: “Maybe there were some objections at the beginning, but after that there was really good cooperation between the Ministry of Health and the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution.” Last year, the increase in medical capacity was even 400 more than the amount stipulated in the decree. He considered the President’s good follow-up as one of the factors of this success and added: In the meeting of the Supreme Council last month, several friends of the Ministry of Health, while attending the meeting and speaking, spoke about the implementation problems of this resolution. They believed that universities of medical sciences may not be able to fully implement the plan and it would be better if the implementation is delayed by one year. But the president stood firm and supported the council’s decision.
The secretary of the science and technology staff of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, pointing out that the president considers it his duty and duty to follow up on the shortage of doctors, pointed out: In response to these experts, the president said that either we have a shortage of doctors or we don’t! If there is a shortage of doctors, then let’s go to the government to provide the necessary resources. Even if we do not have a shortage of doctors, prove it so that we can cancel the decree.
Localization is an important condition for increasing capacity
This faculty member of Shahid Beheshti University of Tehran called localization as one of the important features of the medical capacity increase resolution and added: This resolution is not limited to the amount of capacity increase, but also specifies the acceptance method. In this plan, special attention has been paid to underprivileged and deprived areas. He considered the shortage of doctors as one of the obstacles to the implementation of the family doctor plan and pointed out: Currently, in many provinces and cities, there are not enough doctors to implement this plan.
He considered the cause of this problem to be the high cost of providing the facilities needed to transfer doctors to these areas and said: According to the decision of the Supreme Council, admission will only increase locally. In fact, we train doctors from every region for the same place. It is even possible that the doctor’s place of study is in the famous universities of the country, but the doctor’s place of service is in his own deprived area. With this action, the ground will be provided for the implementation of the family doctor plan.
We are waiting for the Ministry of Health!
The secretary of the science and technology staff of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution said that the reason for the delay in approving a plan to increase the capacity of specialist doctors was the procrastination of the Ministry of Health and added: In the second note of the decree on increasing medical capacity, the Ministry of Health was required to submit a plan within two months of the notification of the decree. To encourage and increase the capacity of accepting assistants, provide medical expertise to the council. After a few months delay, the Ministry of Health brought a proposal to the council that was not what we wanted.
While pointing out that this plan has been returned to the Ministry of Health, Barzoui said: The Council’s approach is to interact with the institutions. We are looking to get the job done with the help of the devices. As in the last two resolutions, we saw the same approach and we had full cooperation with the Ministry of Health.
He considered the priority of the Supreme Council to advance the proposal of the Ministry of Health and noted: We have done the expert work required to increase the capacity of accepting specialist doctors. We have had the last correspondence with the Ministry of Health and asked them to announce the need and plan based on the statistics.
According to experts, the Ministry of Health’s lack of planning in terms of increasing its capacity to accept medical assistants can intensify the shortage of specialist doctors. It is expected that by presenting a complete plan from this ministry, necessary measures will be taken as soon as possible to compensate for this deficiency.
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