TEHRAN –Approximately, 7,000 physicians are participating in the implementation of the Family Physician Program in rural areas, an official with the health insurance organization has said.

The rural family physician program started in 2005. Back then, it targeted villages and cities with a population of less than 20,000 individuals to make treatment referrals more concentrated and provide more convenient access to health services, ISNA quoted Masoud Mashayekhi as saying.

Highlighting that over 20 million Iranians are covered by the rural family physician program, Mashayekhi said medical, dental, mental, midwifery, nutrition, laboratory, pharmaceutical, and medical imaging services are being offered.

Over 7,000 physicians, 5,662 midwives, as well as 1,893 dentists, and dental hygienists are providing services in 4,287 medical centers, he noted.

In the current Iranian year that began on March 20, the program has expanded to include mental health and nutrition experts to further address the needs of rural families.

Targeting almost 25,000,000 citizens residing in rural areas, the Family Physician Program was piloted in two provinces of Fars and Mazandaran in 2005.

Periodic examinations and monitoring of people’s health status, easy and round-the-clock access to basic services and primary care, and frequent visits to doctors are the characteristics of a family physician.

Based on the Family Physician Program, a physician and a midwife offer services in rural areas, every 3,300 villagers have a physician and there is a midwife per 5,200 people in villages.

The implementation of the Family Physician Program in urban areas began in June 2012 in Fars and Mazandaran provinces. Reducing out-of-pocket payments has been an important effect and benefit of the urban family physician program.

The Family Physician Program has made treatment referrals more concentrated and improved the interactions between doctors and healthcare providers.

In September 2023, former Health Minister Bahram Einollahi described the Family Physician Program as the most important priority of the ministry for the next two years.

“This program is a basic measure which, in case of being properly formed, will solve many problems of the health system,” Einollahi said, IRNA reported.

In September 2023, Mohsen Barouni, an official with the Health Ministry said “The program has been implemented in 182 cities of the country covering more than 20 million Iranians,” IRNA reported.

A total of 20,263,501 persons have been covered by the Family Physician Program, which constitutes 40 percent of the target population in cities.

Over 4300 healthcare workers have been recruited for the implementation of the program. So far, Family Physician Program has been implemented in three phases; in the first phase 59 cities were included in the program; in the second phase, it raised to 93 cities and now a total of 182 cities are covered by the program.

Barouni went on to say that the Family Physician Program has not yet been carried out in 66 cities of the country, they will join the program in the next stages.

Initiative of Iran

In February, Einollahi said the Family Physician Program will be registered in international forums as an initiative of Iran.

Based on the program, which started in the current calendar year ending on March 20, every Iranian will have an electronic health file, IRNA quoted Einollahi as saying.

“A healthcare provider regularly checks the health of the family members and in case of getting sick, they will be referred to a family physician,” he said.

This way, he went on to say, when a person is referred to medical centers, 95 percent of the costs will be covered by the ministry of health.

In fact, the Family Physician Program is an initiative of Iran, and the ministry will register its intellectual property in the name of the Islamic Republic in international forums.

The administration intends to transform the health system approach from treatment-oriented to prevention-oriented.

Stating that the Family Physician Program is currently being implemented in 195 cities, Einollahi added that the program is an important achievement that will be implemented nationwide next year.

“Every individual will have a health file through which non-communicable diseases will be controlled.”

MT/MG