Iran's doctor shortage: 30,000 won't practice for offered wages

Mohammad Raiszadeh, head of Iran's Medical Council, the country's non-governmental licensing and regulatory body, said today (Thursday) that around 30,000 medical practitioners are unwilling to practice medicine for the compensation on offer, according to Iran International.

Raiszadeh said that the matter of low willingness to practice medicine cannot be resolved "with such extremely low fees" and that doctors' wages have grown slower than those of public servants or general workers even as inflation has reached higher than 40%.

The Iranian government strictly regulates medical fees, annually approving specific rates for private general practitioners, specialists, and dentists.

The doctors shortage is just another in a long list of consequences for Iran's seriously faltering economy.

A report earlier this year noted that some 50% of Iranians aged 25-50 are unemployed. This is compounded by persistent fuel shortages caused by US sanctions and aging infrastructure, which has led to multiple businesses and factories being shut down either temporarily or permanently.

Iran has witnessed sporadic acts of protest and strikes against low wages and payments from nurses, pensioners, small business owners, and farmers, who have demanded the return of subsidies or better pay and working conditions.

Iran's efforts to sell sanctioned oil are also hitting roadblocks, as its main customers are low efficiency Chinese refiners, which the Chinese government seeks to either force to be more efficient or shut down. This has forced Iran to have a glut of unsold oil while it suffers from fuel shortages and budget shortfalls at home.

Iran's currency has nosedived in the last year and especially in the last few months, with President-elect Donald Trump promising to bring back the kind of "maximum pressure" sanctions which crippled the country's economy during his first term in office.

Trump has reportedly even pondered the possibility or necessity of a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities to stop it from breaking out to creating a nuclear arsenal.