By NCRI Staff
NCRI – In continuation of Iranian anaesthesiologists protest against reduction of anaesthesia tariffs, an official in the specialized association of this field while criticizing “discrimination and injustice,” emphasized that if this problem is not resolved, “it is possible that we do not anaesthetize some patients.”
According to the state-run Mehr news agency, when the budget of the year 2017 were approved by the government of Hassan Rouhani during his first tenure, tariffs for some disciplines, including anaesthesia, were reduced, and this prompted a series of protests launched against the Ministry of Health.
State-run Fars news agency quotes this tariff cut as being “25 percent.”
As the Mehr news agency wrote, following the intensification of the anaesthesiologists’ objection to way the medical tariffs of 2017 were determined, “Decisions were made at the Ministry of Health to prevent further protests.”
Among them, the chairman and members of the Iranian Association of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care met with the Minister of Health, the Minister of Welfare, MPs and several officials in the Rouhani government “So that they may be able to amend the anaesthetic tariffs and reduce the severity of the protest by the specialists of this field.”
Nevertheless, it seems that the talks did not go anywhere, because as the Fars news agency wrote on Friday September 1, the anaesthesiologists still did not receive a “satisfactory response”, according to an official in the Anaesthesiology Association.
The news agency, quoting Atabak Najafi, Secretary of the Society for Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, wrote: “If we do not get a satisfactory answer from this office and the ministry’s officials do not convince us, it’s possible that we will not anaesthetize some patients to make them unconscious.”
Meanwhile, according to the association’s inspector, Ali Haj Qassem-Ali, the “lack of funds” has been raised by the government as a reason for lowering anaesthesia tariffs.
Some members of the Anaesthesiology Association have met with several government officials, including the Minister of Health and the Minister of Labor, however, as the report says, they have not yet met their demands.
According to a report by Mehr news agency, Atabak Najafi last year announced that there are 4,500 anaesthesiologists in Iran.
However, according to the report, there are only 1,500 surgical beds in the hospitals of the country, three anaesthetists per bed.