According to academic officials in Hamadan province, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences is facing a critical shortage of nursing and medical staff.
Behrouz Karkhanei, president of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, warned that the ongoing shortage of personnel is making it increasingly difficult to provide medical services to patients in the province.
The state-run Khabaronline website quoted Karkhanei as saying that staff shortages and heavy workloads have made it difficult to provide “adequate services” to patients. He emphasized that the university’s situation in terms of nursing and medical staff is “critical” and that the current payment system for medical personnel is “unworthy of the healthcare workforce.”
Reports indicate that the human resource situation in the healthcare sector is poor in other provinces as well. In recent days, nurses have once again staged protests over their dire economic conditions and unpaid wages.
On February 25, as part of ongoing nurses’ protests across various provinces over low wages and officials’ neglect of their livelihoods, a number of nurses and staff at Aria Hospital in Ahvaz staged a protest.
The state-run ILNA news agency reported that a group of nurses, administrative staff, and service workers at Aria Hospital in Ahvaz went on strike for the second consecutive day to protest their wages.
Similarly, several nurses in Zanjan province went on strike to protest their poor living conditions and unpaid wages. In Tehran’s Milad Hospital, nurses and hospital staff held a protest against salary reductions.
Ongoing Issues in the Healthcare Sector and Officials’ Neglect Have Driven Many Medical Staff Out of the System
Reports indicate that a significant number of healthcare professionals have either shifted to other occupations or migrated abroad due to these problems.
A professional representative of the nursing community stated that “every year, 4,000 nurses in Iran leave their jobs, and 50,000 nurses remain unemployed” because they are unwilling to work under low wages and harsh working conditions.
On February 18, Mohammad Sharifi Moghadam, the regime’s Secretary-General of the House of Nurses, told the state-run Khabaronline that financial mismanagement in the nursing budget has occurred. He stated: “Funds were withdrawn from the National Development Fund under the name of nursing, but the money was redirected elsewhere and never reached the nurses.” He also revealed that nurses who protest their low wages face threats, summonses to disciplinary boards, and pressure from hospital security units.
Sharifi Moghadam, like the president of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, warned about the severe shortage of nurses and healthcare workers. He stated that Iran’s healthcare system is facing a nursing crisis and, according to World Health Organization (WHO) standards, there should be at least three nurses per 1,000 people. However, in Iran, the ratio is only 1.7 nurses per 1,000 people, which is lower than neighboring countries like Armenia and Georgia.
The previous wave of nurses’ protests in public hospitals across various Iranian cities began in September and lasted for weeks.
During these protests, nurses demanded the fulfillment of their rights, including “reforming the payment system within the Ministry of Health,” “eliminating discrimination in the slight increase of nursing wages,” “abolishing mandatory overtime,” “prompt payment of overdue salaries,” “reducing workload through hiring more nurses,” and “improving unsafe working conditions.”
