Ali Jafarian, deputy health minister of Iran’s regime, announced that more than 80% of the capacity in emergency medicine programs and one-third of anesthesiology positions at Iranian universities remain vacant and have no applicants.
On Sunday, October 5, he explained to the state-run ISNA news agency that over the past three years, based on a Ministry of Health decision, the capacity for specialized fields was supposed to increase by 12% annually. “We implemented this increase,” he said, “but since these fields have few applicants, the number of vacant seats continues to grow.”
According to Jafarian, in 2024 about 1,600 residency positions in Iranian universities remained unfilled. In the key field of anesthesiology, there are about 440 available positions, but only 110 residents were accepted, leaving 130 seats without students.
The deputy minister added that in emergency medicine, there are 400 available positions, but only 38 students were admitted. He said the same situation exists in other fields such as infectious diseases, internal medicine, and obstetrics and gynecology.
He stressed that “if we want to have specialists in different cities, we must reform the student admission process in universities.”
Concern over the shortage of physicians in Iran
The shortage of medical specialists in Iran has been repeatedly reflected in officials’ remarks and experts’ analyses in recent years, raising concerns about the future of the country’s healthcare system.
The state-run Nournews website reported on September 18, citing official statistics from Iran’s Medical Council Organization, that about 29% of registered general practitioners in Iran are not practicing medicine.
Iranian City Faces Shortage of Specialists in 48 Medical Fields
In July 2025, Abbas-Ali Reyeskarmi, president of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, announced a decline in applicants for six specialized and subspecialized fields at the university, saying that “the lack of candidates in these core disciplines poses a challenge to Iran’s healthcare system.”
Nournews also cited “centralization,” “geographical inequality,” and “unfair distribution of medical specialists” as other major challenges in Iran’s healthcare system. Relying on official data, it added that a significant portion—42%—of specialists are concentrated in five major cities, and in some specialties up to 60% of doctors work only in Tehran.
The website also described the growing migration of general practitioners and specialists to European and North American countries as alarming, writing that “economic hardship, heavy workload, lack of job security, and uncertainty about the professional future” have caused especially young doctors to turn away from practicing in critical fields inside the country.
On September 15, Shahin Akhoundzadeh, deputy minister for research and technology at the regime’s Ministry of Health, called meritocracy the most important factor in retaining talented individuals and revealed that “most of the top 100 university entrance exam scorers in medical sciences migrate because suitable employment conditions are not available in the country.”
Rising suicides among healthcare workers
In May 2024, Iraj Khosronia, president of the Iranian Society of Internal Medicine Specialists, warned health authorities about the consequences of creating difficulties for healthcare staff.
Fivefold Increase in Chain Suicides in Iran’s Medical Community
He cited repeated suicides and the migration of doctors and nurses as consequences of the pressure imposed on the medical community.
Khosronia stated that the medical community is in a state of “particular distress and turmoil,” adding that government officials and members of parliament “have not only forgotten the role of this group but have also continuously constrained healthcare workers through burdensome legislation, forcing them to either leave the medical field or emigrate.”
