Alireza Raisi, Deputy Minister of Health, elaborated on the latest status of the implementation of this program at the family medicine meeting. He announced that currently, 64 health and treatment networks from 64 universities and medical sciences colleges across the country have been selected to implement the family medicine program, and this plan is in the establishment phase.
Number of Patients Covered and Initial Progress
Raisi spoke about the population covered by this program, stating that so far, 13.3 million people, including 60% of the urban population and 40% of the rural population, have been covered by this plan. The attribution of the rural population in the areas implementing the plan has reached 100%, while in the urban population, this figure is about 60% and is gradually being completed.
This official also referred to the status of human resources in the family medicine program and stated that currently, 2,528 doctors are working in selected urban and rural centers, of which 944 are government doctors and 299 are from the private sector. However, there is a shortage of about 1,547 doctors that need to be gradually added.
Important Achievements and Identification of New Patients
Raisi discussed the initial results of the family medicine program and added that despite the plan still being in the establishment phase, about 3.5 million visits at the primary health service level have been recorded, with over 400,000 referrals and 136,000 visits at the secondary level. One of the significant achievements of this program is the organization of the appointment system, which has reached over 64% in each of the 64 selected networks.
He also mentioned the early identification of about 63,000 individuals with non-communicable diseases, stating that during this period, 19,246 new diabetes patients, 34,731 new hypertension patients, and 9,322 individuals with pre-diabetes have been identified. The identification rate of diabetic patients in the target population has increased from about 22% to 49.7%.
Raisi emphasized that the family medicine program is still in the establishment phase, and with the completion of human resources and the development of infrastructure, a more accurate assessment of its results in the field of prevention and early detection of diseases will be possible. In later stages, other indicators such as cancer screening and child care will also be added to the monitoring system of this program.
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