Thousands Of Doctors Considered Leaving Iran Over The Past Year

Doctors and health workers in Iran under tremendous pressure during the COVID pandemic.
Doctors and health workers in Iran under tremendous pressure during the COVID pandemic.

Iran's Medical Council says about 4,000 doctors have applied for Certificates of Good Standing in the past 12 months with the intent to leave the country.

Council spokesman Reza Laripour said on Monday that the annual number of such applications was less than 600 between 2013 and 2015.

Rejecting some reports saying only young doctors were applying for a certificate, Laripour said that the council receives applications from doctors from different age groups.

General economic conditions have deteriorated in the country since 2018, when the United States unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers and reimposed crippling sanctions.

The Medical Council of Iran is a non-governmental organization that is responsible for licensing doctors in Iran. It can deliver Certificates of Good Standing confirming that the applicant is entitled to practice medicine in the country.

There are around 90,000 doctors in Iran, split evenly between general practitioners and specialists.

Last month, the governor-general of Fars Province, who is himself a medical doctor and the longest serving dean of the medical school in Shiraz, created an uproar in Iran when he told doctors they were not indispensable and that they could leave the country if they wish.

"Doctors who threaten to leave Iran are free to go and I will see them off," Mohammad Hadi Imanieh was quoted as saying, adding that he would be willing to pay the travel cost of medical doctors who wish to leave Iran.