Under Article 44 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, services that can be privatized, must be delegated to the private sector.
The Ministry of Health and Medical Education, based on domestic and international experience and in observance of Governing State Development Documents,
after a long process, decided to place in, the assignment of dialysis services to the nongovernmental and private sector, in its agenda.
This pattern is being implemented in most of advanced countries around the world.
In these countries, dialysis sections are setup and run by private sector in an outpatient clinic setting, with prior approval and under supervision of public healthcare organizations and insurance organizations/companies.
As such, state-run General Hospitals only have limited dialysis facilities for admission and hospitalization of acute cases.
In Iran, only about 15 percent of dialysis clinics and centers are run by charities and the private sector and more than 85 percent of dialysis units are operated by state-owned health facilities.
In most advanced countries, the private sector and NGOs have long been involved in the promotion of health, education and treatment.
In Iran also, in addition to dialysis services, many areas of medical services such as scans (X-RAYs, CT-SCANs, MRIs…etc.), dental services and many other medical services are mostly offered by private sector, under supervision of public healthcare organizations and insurance organizations/companies and general population are familiar with this trend.
Nevertheless, privatization of dialysis services in terms of geographic expanse and extent of assignment could be unlike any other previous experiences and a first time occurrence in Iran.
Naturally, this plan faces some opposition within the country, which have spoken out their various reasons, but it can be argued that merits of this plan are much more than its probable negative dimensions. Below are some of more important of these arguments:
The above factors, result in meaningful differences between the adequacy of dialysis and its quality in many dialysis centers throughout Iran with international standards, and impose high costs on the economy of the country.
These costs include; frequent hospitalization of dialysis patients in treatment centers, need for consumption of more drugs, increased mortality and restricting patients’ social activities.
Necessity to improve treatment services for dialysis patients which is their inalienable right, the government’s financial constraints, and stipulations by Governing State Development Documents for utilization of private sector capacities are the most important reasons for delegation of these services to private sector.
With the implementation of this plan, and admission of hundreds of billions of Rials of private-sector’s capital into this market, the Ministry of Health, with participation of private sector financiers, will be able to address large portions of previously mentioned shortcomings, and closely monitor and supervise this undertaking.
The aim of Ministry of Health’s Call for Proposals, is to promote treatment services for dialysis patients, qualitatively and quantitatively.
Although this plan is not flawless, nevertheless by the basis of rational logic, the benefits of this plan are far greater than its probable shortcomings, and therefore it is rather deserving for everyone, to help towards its success.
