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According to senior Iranian budget officials, government spending in the healthcare sector has increased by six times in just eight years to over $6 billion.
Hamid Pour Asghari, deputy head of the Plan and Budget Organization (PBO) of Iran, said Tuesday that projected annual healthcare spending for the year beginning March 2021 would have reached 1,420 trillion rials, up from 230 trillion rials spent in 2013 when the current administration took office.
Pour Asghari stated that the percentage of healthcare spending from the entire budget has increased to 17% from 10% in 2013.
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He further stated that healthcare spending per capita has risen over four times in eight years to 13 million rials for the current calendar year, adding that out of pocket payments by patients has fallen to only 10% in urban area and 5% for people living in the countryside.
The PBO official said that from the end of the year to March 2022, the total number of hospitals in Iran will reach 1,137, an increase of more than 26% compared to records in 2013.
The number of hospital beds will have increased by over 67% in eight years to a total of 188,000 in March 2022, said Pour Asghari.
Just In: An Iranian health official says Iran's first #coronavirus vaccine, named Cov Iran Barakat, which is indigenously developed, is about to get license from the country's Health Ministry for mass production. pic.twitter.com/SkwmfH1GeH
— Press TV (@PressTV) May 31, 2021
“Some 400 beds have been added each month or, better said, the government has built a 400-bed hospital every months in the past eight years,” he said.
Iran has relied on its own healthcare capacities to tackle one of the most significant outbreaks of coronavirus pandemic in the Middle East throughout 2020.
That comes as the country has been barred from accessing crucial drugs and medical supplies from abroad due to US sanctions.
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