New Hospital Beds Needed

Half of all hospital beds in the country (135,000) are worn-out, said Shahla Bayat, head of the Women Participation Office at Iran’s Health Charity Association. “We are also in need of 105,000 new hospital beds to meet international standards (three hospital beds per 1000 population). Currently, health projects are funded by 70,000 philanthropists at the charity, of whom 17% are women,” ISNA quoted her as saying.  Since its establishment in 2009, the charity has spent over 40,000 billion rials ($1 billion) on construction of medical projects across the country. The goal of the charity is to assist the Health Ministry in filling the gaps in the healthcare system and increase people’saccess to health services.