TEHRAN- Eight hospitals have been built in the country since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21), announced the deputy minister of transport and urban development.

According to Mohammad Jafar Alizadeh, in total, the hospitals have 1,200 beds and their construction cost some 5 trillion rials (around $120 million), ISNA reported on Saturday.

The new hospitals are in seven provinces; namely, Tehran, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Lorestan, East Azarbaijan, West Azarbaijan, Kordestan and Khuzestan, Alizadeh stated.

“Some 4 trillion rials (around $95 million) has also been assigned to the construction of hospitals in six other provinces of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Hamadan, Mazandaran, Gilan, Ardabil and Kermanshah. The new hospitals are under construction and will be inaugurated by the end of current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2019),” added Alizadeh.

“Currently, there are on average 2.8 hospital beds in the country per 1,000 people,” he further remarked.

Health Minister Hassan Qazizadeh-Hashemi said on Friday that 31,500 new hospital beds have been set up in the country since 2013 when President Hasan Rouhani started his first round of administration.

According to the minister, there are currently 120,000 hospital beds in the country.

On Friday, a 294-bed hospital was inaugurated in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, western Iran. The completion of the hospital took 10 years and some 900 billion rials (nearly $22 million) was spent on its construction. 

Also on Thursday, the health minister reopened a hospital which was damaged over last year’s devastating earthquake of Kermanshah, western Iran.

SJ/MQ/MG