Deputy minister: Asian countries seeking health services from Iran
Deputy Tourism Minister Anushirvan Mohseni Bandpey announced on Tuesday that in the field of health tourism, the countries of Iraq, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan are seeking to receive health services from Iran.
“Iran has civilizational, historical, cultural, natural, religious, and spiritual capacities, and in the health sector, thanks to the [1979] Islamic Revolution, we are witnessing the training of specialized and skilled human resources in all medical fields,” Mohseni Bandpey said.
“In the field of health, we are superior among the countries in the region, and in some medical fields, we are on par with European and American countries.”
Stressing that a system has been designed for health tourism, whose oversight is entrusted to the Deputy Minister of Tourism and Ministry of Health, he said, “In this system, the type of service is specified from the moment health tourists enter the country until their discharge from the hospital.”
In the past, Mohseni Bandpey said, healthcare services were provided in a way that could not be tracked or monitored, but with this system, standard services are provided to tourist patients under the supervision of responsible authorities.
“Every tourist traveling to Iran from South Asia spends an average of 1,270 dollars, but this figure is three to four times higher in the health sector,” he added.
The number of foreign tourists entering Iran in March and April increased by 48.5 percent compared to the same period last year.
Before the US-Israeli imposed war broke out in June, tourist arrivals increased by eight percent, but later, it was minus 22 percent; also, the number of tourists entering the country in July was minus 52 percent and in August was minus 68 percent.