180 nurses dismissed in Zanjan Province after cancellation of COVID-19 special plan
Reza Bahmani, the nursing director at the vice treatment division in Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, announced the dismissal of 180 nurses from the university system in this province in northwest Iran.
Bahmani announced that “all nurses must take on the mandatory nurses’ plan for 2 years.” Subsequently, a voluntary 2-year extension plan and a 2-year special COVID-19 plan were proposed for the nurses. Therefore, some nurses tended to enroll and be engaged in this project for 4 years. (The state-run ISNA News Agency – August 27, 2022)
Bahmani added, “Given that the Ministry of Health’s development system has been limited as it was in the pre-COVID-19 time, the voluntary plan will not be extended, and this is a national matter.”
The fact is that Zanjan Province depends on nurses taking part in the voluntary plan. Unfortunately, due to the plan’s cancellation, the nurses are excluded from the health system because their pay is deposited from the government’s funds.
Bahmani said the dismissal of the nurses in the voluntary plan would take place gradually. About 180 nurses will be dismissed by the end of the running Persian year (early February 2023) in Zanjan Province.
Nurses’ salaries in Zanjan Province have already been delayed and not paid.
Iranian regime hires doctors from India, Pakistan, and the Philippines
The head of Iran’s Medical Council Organization unveiled the shortage of physicians in the country, specifically in the field of cardiac surgery. He said, “Under these circumstances, we are forced to import doctors from India, Pakistan, and the Philippines with a 40-year fallback. The cardiac surgery department had room for 18 people this year, but not even one person applied. There were only two graduates in pediatric surgery throughout the country.”
This issue has become a severe problem, especially with brain-drain rising throughout the country.
The regime’s flawed policies have disappointed the young medical community and will create a flood of emigrants who have no choice but to abandon the medical arena. Physicians In Iran are no longer willing to study in specialty and subspecialty courses. This will result in a shortage of doctors in the years to come. (The state-run Shafaqna News Agency – August 25, 2022)
6,000 nurses and doctors leave Iran in two years
Iran’s Medical Council announced that 6,000 nurses and doctors have left Iran to immigrate to Europe and the U.S. in two years.
The migration of these Iranian doctors and nurses comes when the medical system in Iran faces a shortage of 150,000 nurses. At the same time, there is a real shortage of physicians and medical centers in most of Iran’s border cities and villages.
Hossein Ali Shahriari, the head of the parliamentary Health Commission, admitted on May 26, 2022: “In the provinces of South Khorassan, and Sistan-and-Baluchestan, sometimes a person must travel 300 kilometers to reach equipped medical centers located in the province’s capital.” (The state-run Dana News Agency – May 26, 2022)
Shahriari also pointed out that the unprofessional approvals of the government and parliament have created problems in the treatment of people in deprived areas and in providing them with doctors.
Earlier, Mohammad Sharifi Moghaddam, Secretary-General of the House of Nurses, had said, “The number of nurses migrating (from Iran) has probably increased by 200 to 300 percent compared to the past. Conditions are bad in our country, and nurses do not have job security.” (The state-run Armanmeli Daily – January 25, 2022)
