TEHRAN – Some 64 health projects were put into operation on Sunday in eastern South Khorasan province.

A total of 1.1 billion rials (about $26 million at the official rate of 42,000 rials) have been spent for the implementation of these projects, which included emergency base, laboratory, rural health center, roadside rescue center, dialysis centers, CT scans, and equipping hospitals with operating rooms, ICUs, maternity wards, and blood banks.

According to the Ministry of Health, 1,400 health projects will be opened throughout the country by May 2021.

Jafar Sadeq Tabrizi, the director of the health network department at the Ministry of Health, has said the health network has been playing a key role in fighting the coronavirus pandemic mostly through equipping medical centers and implementing Family Physician programs across the country.

Currently, 31,400 Health Houses and 7,400 health centers are providing services to over 20 million villagers nationwide, with 630 healthcare providers, he highlighted, adding, therefore, 97 percent of the country’s rural population is covered by the primary health care system.

Pointing out that 93 percent of the urban residents are covered by the health networks in the country, he said that 3,987 physicians and 12,032 health care providers (dentists, nurses, midwives, and health professionals in the fields of environmental health, nutrition, mental health, etc.) provide services to 54 million people.

Family Physician program 

In 2005, Family Physician (FP) program was started, which targeted almost 25,000,000 citizens residing in rural areas, and piloted in two provinces of Fars and Mazandaran. 

Based on the 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 plan helped reduce treatment costs and public spending on healthcare services, as the physician is aware of the person’s health background, so that it prevents many unnecessary diagnostic processes, like scans.

FB/MG