Health Ministry Claims: The Cause of Parastoo Bakhshi's Death is Still Unknown, We Collaborated Fully with Her

Following the news of the suicide of Parastoo Bakhshi, a cardiologist at a hospital in Delfan, the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of the Islamic Republic stated that there is no 'self-disclosure' or evidence of any 'mental illness' on her part. Pedram Pak-Ayin, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, said on Thursday, April 9, that the 'cause of death' of this doctor has not yet been determined by forensic medicine. He also claimed that the Ministry of Health had 'fully cooperated' with her regarding the 'one-year delay' in her project and the selection of her place of service. According to the 1370 resolution of the Islamic Consultative Assembly and based on the law governing the service of physicians and paramedics, the 'medical project' is a 24-month period that every graduate of these sciences in Iran must complete after finishing their medical studies. The method of completing the 'project' and the location of this period varies based on the discretion of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of the Islamic Republic concerning medical services in different regions and related issues. Meanwhile, Mohammad Reza Zafarghandi, the Secretary-General of the Medical Society, also reacted on April 9 to the suicide of this cardiologist at Ibn Sina Hospital in Delfan, writing on the social network 'X': 'The psychological, physical, and economic pressure on young physicians, residents, and assistants has reached a warning threshold.' He added: 'The negligence of officials towards the existing harsh and imposed conditions is the main reason for the increasing despair, suicides, and emigration of our dear medical community in Iran.' The spokesperson for the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Health further claimed regarding the suicide of Parastoo Bakhshi that 'the city of Noorabad [Lorestan province] as the place of service [medical project] was her personal choice.' According to him, Parastoo Bakhshi once in 1401 requested a 'transfer of her place of service' without mentioning any 'special conditions or mental illness' to the commission of commitments of specialized forces, but since she had 'not essentially started her project and had delayed it for a year, her request for transfer naturally became 'moot.' These statements were made while Ali Salhashoor, head of the public relations department of the Medical System Organization, stated that Parastoo Bakhshi had 'recently lost her parents and the Ministry of Health did not assist in transferring her project location.' He also mentioned that Parastoo Bakhshi was on the 'blacklist' of this ministry and that one of the internal medicine professors (gastroenterology) at Rahimi Hospital in Khorramabad had shown 'extreme injustice, insult, and humiliation' towards this young doctor and had paid her half of her salary. The news of Parastoo Bakhshi's 'suicide' due to 'pressures at work and from the national healthcare network,' along with images of her presence in the operating room or during medical activities in the early days of the new solar year 1403, sparked many reactions in the medical community and among public opinion. In this context, the 'Khabar Online' website reported on Wednesday, April 8, that the Iranian Medical System Organization announced that it would form a 'fact-finding committee' to deal with those responsible for this incident. Concurrently with the wave of migration of doctors and nurses to other countries due to economic issues and governmental inefficiencies, medical students or graduates undergoing the 'project' are also facing serious work crises, job inequalities, wage injustices, and lack of attention from government agencies to their problems, similar to many other professions and sectors in Iran.