TEHRAN - The Health Ministry plans to launch the Family Physician Program in 20 selected cities nationwide on June 15, aiming to make treatment referrals more concentrated and provide more convenient access to health services.

The rural family physician program started in 2005. Back then, it also targeted villages and cities inhabited by fewer than twenty thousand individuals to make treatment referrals more concentrated and provide more convenient access to health services, ISNA reported.

Periodic examinations and monitoring of people’s health status, easy and round-the-clock access to basic services and primary care, and frequent visits to doctors are the characteristics of a family physician.

Medical, dental, mental, midwifery, nutrition, laboratory, pharmaceutical, and medical imaging are among the offered services by the program.

Based on the Family Physician Program, a physician and a midwife offer services in rural areas; every 3,300 villagers have a physician, and there is a midwife per 5,200 people in villages.

The program will gradually target other parts of the country as well, ISNA quoted Health Minister Mohammad-Reza Zafarqandi as saying.

“It is a large-scale program based on social behavior change. Designing new patient pathways, reforming the referral pattern, and improving the healthcare network system requires careful coordination between the Health Ministry, governors, and other relevant institutions at the provincial level,” IRIB quoted Zafarqandi as saying.

So, it is essential to develop a national headquarters headed by the President to oversee the overall management of the program, he added.

“We have already reached agreements on ten key issues such as financial resources, location, implementation stages, and public information. Moreover, the chancellors of medical sciences universities will hold a meeting this week to finalize the implementation model for the program,” Zafarqandi noted.

In May 2025, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) director for the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) said Iran is a leading country in expanding its healthcare system and providing access to universal health coverage.

Lauding the country’s achievements in recent years, Hanan Balkhi said expanding primary health care services, increasing access to health coverage in rural areas, maintaining high vaccination rates, and reducing maternal and newborn mortality, Iran has managed to become a successful role model in the region, the health ministry’s website reported.

The official made the remarks in a meeting with Health Minister Mohammad-Reza Zafarqandi. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA).

The country’s commitment to providing equal health services to millions of refugees makes its services even more commendable.

WHO EMRO is working closely with the Iranian regulatory institutions to achieve regulatory maturity level 3 in the pharmaceutical regulatory system to pave the way for broader exports of Iranian health-oriented products to global markets; it will also contribute to promoting global health security, Balkhi added.

In January 2025, President Masoud Pezeshkian called the country’s health system a role model in the region and even the world, thanks to its unique, particularly primary healthcare services.

The official made the remarks in a letter addressing a national seminar held in Mashhad to honor healthcare staff, including nursing aids, health ministry website reported.

Lauding the substantial progress made in the health sector, the president said these remarkable achievements are the result of health workers’ ceaseless efforts, such as providing vaccination and prenatal care for pregnant mothers, controlling infectious diseases, promoting health education, sharing knowledge, and training new generations of health staff nationwide.

The notable increase in life expectancy, reduction in infant mortality rate, control of infectious diseases, and reduction in complications from chronic diseases are all due to health workers’ dedication and commitment.

Pezeshkian also commended the ongoing health programs, such as universal health coverage and family physician programs, which have made comprehensive and continuous healthcare accessible to millions.

The president went on to say that the administration recognizes the untiring efforts and services of all health workers, and is determined to elevate the country’s health system to its rightful and deserving position, utilizing health workers’ valuable capacities and potential.