A Health Ministry Official Stated the Value of Each Surgeon is $10 Million; We are Training Doctors for Foreigners

The head of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences has warned about the intensification of healthcare personnel migration, stating that the alarm bell has rung in this sector and that the country's educational and health system is effectively training doctors for foreigners. According to a report by Khorasan newspaper, Mohammad Ali Kiani mentioned that some countries have concluded not to accept medical students and instead take the doctors who are already prepared. He stated that the cost of training a medical student in Iran is 2.8 billion tomans, while the international standard is 1.5 million dollars. The head of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences pointed out the hidden costs of healthcare personnel migration, noting that a surgeon is worth 10 million dollars when they start working, and this is what we are losing. The migration of healthcare personnel from Iran intensified after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and peaked during the nationwide protests last autumn. The Iranian Migration Observatory reported in its 2022 migration yearbook that the reasons for the increase in Iranian migration to other countries include governance style, institutionalized corruption, the pursuit of greater welfare and security, professional and social discrimination, better quality of life abroad, currency fluctuations, inflation and economic conditions, sanctions, wage levels, and economic instability. This issue has been repeatedly emphasized by health and medical officials. The Tehran-based newspaper 'Donya-e-Eqtesad' in its issue on Saturday, May 13, reported that the desire of specialists to migrate has surpassed that of general practitioners. Donya-e-Eqtesad criticized the lack of precise and detailed statistics published by official institutions, stating that the number of doctors and nurses who left the country last year has exceeded 10,000. Mohammad Mirzabigi, head of the Nursing Organization of Iran, also stated on September 18, 2022, to ILNA news agency that the grounds for attracting and retaining nurses in the country have not been provided, with '5 to 6 Iranian nurses' migrating daily. The newspaper 'Javan', affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, also reported on December 3, 2022, that in the past year, 160 cardiologists have migrated, and during the same period, 30,000 healthcare personnel from medical schools have requested 'no criminal record' for their destination, which has been Oman. According to this newspaper, over the past four years, 16,000 general practitioners have migrated from the country.