The President stressed the need to reduce the patient’s share of treatment costs, and said, “We must strengthen insurance coverage so that if a person becomes ill in the family, the family only cares about the patient and does not worry about the costs”.
Speaking in a meeting with a group of managers and specialists of the healthcare system on Wednesday evening, Ayatollah Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi sincerely appreciated the sacrifice and efforts of the country’s medical staff during the coronavirus pandemic, and said, “Many could have lost their businesses, but with widespread vaccination, both the number of patients and the death cases have dropped dramatically, and jobs, schools, and universities are reopening”.
Referring to the anniversary of the announcement of the general policies of the healthcare system, the President said, “Today we are in a position where we must look at the quality of implementation of these policies to see the reason for non-implementation of parts of it and think of ways to remove obstacles”.
Dr Raisi stated that a system of issues and priorities should be defined for the country’s health sector and said, “The government is determined to solve the existing problems in the field of public health, but naturally it is not possible to address all the problems at the same time if they are not prioritised”.
Emphasising the formation of the Supreme Health Council, the President added, “We must promote the transformation of the healthcare system with the aim of reducing costs and improving the indicators of health, basic science, knowledge-based and technological”.
Referring to the concern of some guests at the meeting about the increase in the wave of emigration among doctors, Ayatollah Raisi stated, “The perception must be created among the medical students that they are the capital and future builders of the country”.
The President stressed the need to strengthen the country’s comprehensive health network by relying on referral methods, and noted, “There is no doubt that prevention precedes treatment and the development of a global health network and its activation can provide confidence to the people in the field of medical care”.
Dr Raisi called on the Minister of Health to seriously pursue the implementation of the referral system and family doctor, which has a significant impact on reducing costs and hospitalisations.
Referring to his visit to the National Licensing Portal of the Ministry of Economy, the President said, “The issue of licensing in the medical field for jobs such as setting up clinics and pharmacies should be facilitated and expedited as much as possible, as this can help the health economy flourish”.
In another part of his speech, Dr Raisi welcomed the facilitation of admission and training of foreign students in the country’s medical universities and stated, “I seriously support this. In addition to teaching medical skills, pay special attention to general and professional ethics education and try to raise and introduce this as a privilege for the higher education system of the Islamic Republic”.
Source: Presidency of Islamic Republic of Iran
