Speaking to local reporters on the sidelines of a nurses conference in the city of Semnan (eastern Iran), Qazanfar Mirzabaigi said, Half of them [140,000 nurses”> are employed and between 65,000 to 70,000 are unemployed and seeking employment.
Annually, between six to seven thousand individuals gain their degree from Nursing Colleges throughout the country, Mirzabaigi added.
Hospital privatisation is seen as a major contributing factor to the current unemployment rate of nurses. It has led to many people with illnesses choosing to avoid important surgeries because of rising hospital costs.
High costs of medical care, an ailing health insurance system, and a convoluted bureaucracy governing the public health sector are causing serious discontent among ordinary Iranians. Some who can afford the costs travel to Dubai or Europe to seek medical treatment, while the poor are the biggest victims of Irans mismanaged health system.
In late December, the head of the Medical Department of the University of Gilan announced that more than half of Irans hospitals had declared bankruptcy in the past four years.
Dr. Fariborz Ghanaati stated that since the government introduced a scheme four years ago to privatize the majority of Irans hospitals, 350 out of the 550 hospitals throughout the country have declared bankruptcy.
