TEHRAN– A total of 39 clinics and hospitals in Khorasan Razavi have earned special certificates to provide services to international travelers visiting the northeastern Iranian province.

Up to the movement, thirty-nine medical centers in Khorasan Razavi province embrace International Patient Units, whose task is to coordinate the provision of diagnostic and treatment services to foreign patients, Tasnim quoted a local official as saying on Tuesday.

IPD is a unit in a medical clinic or hospital whose task is to coordinate all necessary services to foreign patients and patients with special services.

“17 hospitals, three limited surgery centers and 19 clinics in the province have been licensed to accept medical tourists,” the official said.

In addition, five hospitals and three clinics are in the process of receiving IPD licenses if they reach the high standards needed to provide services to medical tourists.

According to available data, the number of medical tourists visiting the capital city of Mashhad has jumped by 50 percent in the first half of the current Iranian year (started March 21) in comparison to the same period a year earlier.

23,000 travelers from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Tajikistan received medical services from Mashhad hospitals in the first half of the year, which shows a 50 percent increase year on year.

Local sources say that some 66% of clients were women and 33% were men, who received services from licensed medical centers in the fields of the eye, heart, gynecology, obstetrics, orthopedics, and plastic surgery.

Last year (1400), Mashhad received 24,300 foreign medical travelers who were either hospitalized or gained outpatient treatments, according to Davood Khoshashkan, who presides over the medical tourism department at the Mashhad University of Medical Sciences.

Experts believe that Iran has immense potential to become a hub for medical tourism, adding, for example, Turkey’s revenues from medical tourism surpass Iran’s as the neighboring country possesses lesser medics and hospitals yet it does not have pilgrimage capacities.

Data compiled by the Health Ministry suggest the Islamic Republic hosts an average of one million medical tourists each year.

Many domestic experts believe that medical tourism in Iran is a win-win opportunity both for the country and foreign patients, as they are offered affordable yet quality treatment services and the country gains considerable foreign currency.

While most travelers strive to stay out of the hospital during the holidays, an increasing number of people are crossing international borders to get medical services.

The Islamic Republic has set goals to exceed its yearly medical travelers to around two million in [calendar year] 1404 (March 2025-March 2026).

AM