Next year we will have 90 thousand medical students

Dr. Hamid Akbari, in a conversation with Mehr reporter, said about the disagreement between the Ministry of Health and the Parliament regarding the increase of medical capacity and the required budget: This disagreement is due to a difference of opinion. One view is that there is a shortage of doctors and they conclude that the way to compensate is to increase the capacity of medical students. Our point of view is that a large number of medical students does not necessarily compensate for this shortage, and if these students do not receive proper training, it causes a waste of human resources.

He continued: In educational justice, it has been seen that a student should be recruited from the same deprived area to serve in the same area in the future. Currently, we have several thousands of troops with these conditions and we must provide them with appropriate services and comforts; Otherwise, no matter how much we train doctors, the person will decide to emigrate. When we see that we don't have a doctor in an area, it doesn't necessarily mean that there is a shortage of doctors.

The number of medical graduates reaches 16 thousand students

Referring to the statistics of the current situation, the adviser to the deputy education minister of the Ministry of Health said: According to the statistics, now we have 74 thousand medical students, 7 thousand medical students graduate every year, and according to the increase in medical capacity in recent years, this number will increase to 16 thousand in the next five years. People will arrive in the year. Our population in the country is about 90 million people and next year we will have 90 thousand medical students; Statistics are not like this in any country.

Referring to the limited budget, he emphasized: Medical students have costs and the country's budget is also limited. Therefore, the budget should not be wasted in this way. Our words in the Ministry of Health as the custodian of human resources are this.

When we go for simple solutions with many consequences

Referring to the World Health Organization's solutions for providing doctors, Akbari said: Out of the 50 solutions provided by the WHO for providing medical manpower, one solution is to increase capacity. We leave the other 49 solutions aside and go for a solution that is simpler but has many consequences.

Referring to another solution for increasing the number of doctors, he continued: Another solution is to increase the per capita income of each person in the country. If this amount increases in general, it will be fixed. Some compare the statistics of doctors in Iran and Türkiye. We need to see how much per capita income Türkiye has and how much per capita income we have.

Professor of Tehran University of Medical Sciences said about the status of doctors in deprived areas: Are there other facilities in Sistan and Baluchistan and not only doctors? We don't have any other infrastructure and this area is deprived in other parts as well. This area should grow in other departments as well so that the right doctor can sit there. If we grow the whole area, we should generate a decent income for the doctor.

He added: “A doctor cannot practice in a small town, so the government should give him a good salary.” The government also knows how much it pays its employees. The doctor becomes a government employee, and with this low income, the doctor decides to go to bigger cities, some of them, unfortunately, are engaged in work other than medicine. 30,000 doctors are now working in jobs other than medicine.

We imagine that with the high acceptance of medical students, they will go to deprived areas

Akbari pointed out: We did not have a balanced development and we expect to forcefully send doctors to deprived areas, and we imagine that if we train many medical students, they will go to deprived areas.

In response to a question about the conditions of the next year with regard to the existing budgets, the advisor of the deputy education of the Ministry of Health said: Next year, if the approved budget is realized, the pressure on the universities will be removed to some extent, but for example, to build a hospital and create Teaching beds are needed for this number of medical students. It will take at least 3-4 years to create this infrastructure. First, these amounts had to be provided and facilities created, then we would increase the capacity of medical students. If the capacity was increased 3 years ago and the fee is to be paid the following year.

Regarding the conditions of student dormitories, he added: Now in a student dormitory, instead of 4 people, there are 12 students in one dormitory room. This causes an 18-year-old who has just entered university to become disillusioned, and we lose the youth of the country; This means that this person not only does not become a doctor, but also suffers from other problems.

To Ghazash Mehr, Abdul Hossein Khosrupanah previously said about the latest approvals of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution regarding the issue of increasing the capacity of accepting medical students: In the past three years, this approval was implemented and the capacities were increased by more than 20% every year, but it was proposed That this resolution is not implemented in the fourth year, because the necessary facilities and some arrangements for this increase have not been provided.

The Secretary of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution said: After discussion and exchange of opinions in this field and with the support of the Minister of Health, it was decided to continue this capacity increase for the next year (considering the amount of increase that was applied in the last three years). It was also decided that after four years of the implementation of this decree, a breathing period should be considered and a comprehensive review of capacity increase should be done.