A 1000 health centers specializing in cancer and other terminal illnesses were inaugurated simultaneously across the country recently, taking the total number of health centers to 18,200.
Minister of Health Hassan Hashemi who visited the northern Mazandaran Province to mark the achievement, said the health initiative is a major overhaul in healthcare facilities to villages and remote areas.
Hashemi noted that the most important aspects of the health mission in villages includes preventive strategies, enhancing the quality of life, mother and child care, environmental hygiene, distributing food supplements and providing health education to the local population.
“Planning is also under way to distribute medicine and a variety of vaccines, employing midwives and supplying nutritional supplements to pregnant women, primary school students as well as children under the age of 2 years,” he said.
Since non-communicable diseases are increasing, blood pressure and diabetes control programs have also been added to healthcare services. A new feature of the health center is the addition of a mental health section for the first time.
New Recruits
The minister also said 76 new hospitals are ready for operation but are in need of staff which has not been authorized yet. “President Rouhani has issued instructions to the Management and Planning Organization to hire the staff, and we hope the process will be completed by the year-end (March 20),’’ he said.
On insurance coverage for dental services, he hoped that by next year the lacuna will be filled “to the satisfaction of the people.”
Stating that 10 million people live in slums and poor suburbs, Hashemi called on clerics and religious figures to help raise awareness on the issue as well as help in disease prevention, from their pulpits. “Slum-dwellers are deprived of even the most basic health needs, but we have been able to cater to and organize two million among them,” the minister said. He expressed hope that the remaining would be taken care of within the next 7 to 8 months.
