Iran's top medical body warns of skilled staff exodus

Iran’s health system faces an uphill battle filling vacancies, the country's medical regulatory body warned on Monday, citing shortages of doctors and nurses as the most pressing challenge in the year ahead.

“The three main challenges in the new year will be staffing, financing, and supplies,” the spokesman for the Iranian Medical Council Reza Laripous said, according to state-affiliated news agency ILNA .

Healthcare cannot function without trained workforce, Laripour warned, no matter how many new hospitals are built or expensive equipment brought in.

“Personnel—especially physicians and nurses—are the core users of medical resources and thebackbone of effective care,” he said.

The Iranian government strictly regulates medical fees and annually announces chargeable rates for private general practitioners, specialists, and dentists.

In early April, for instance, doctor's fees for general practitioners and specialists were set at 1.26 million rials ($20) and 1.89 million rials ($30), respectively, for the next twelve months. The medical community argues that these tariffs for medical services do not align with inflation and has strongly objected to them.

Since August, nurses in dozens of cities across Iran have been staging ongoing protests againstharsh working conditions and the government’s failure to pay wages consistently.

Laripour cited unfair tariffs, heavy workloads, and unequal resource distribution as key drivers behind dissatisfaction, leading many to leave their profession.

These pressures, he added, could push skilled staff to leave Iran or shift away from clinical work altogether.

He called for urgent government intervention, including better funding and attention to both thenumber and variety of healthcare professionals.

Without meaningful action, he said, rising inflation and poor economic planning will make it “irrational to expect effective care under current tariff structures,” leaving both providers and patients to bear the costs.

Iranian medical have repeatedly warned in the past few years about the inevitable deterioration of the healthcare system and its possible collapse if the same trends continue.

Government officials have never offered concrete figures on the number of doctors, midwives, and nurses who have left the country for better jobs in neighboring countries including the United Arab Emirates and Oman, as well as elsewhere in the world.