The study of health status in Iran reflects the many advantages. Iran has four seasons weather and therefore it has many attractions of tourism, history, religion and culture. Besides that, modern and well-equipped medical centres along with well-known doctors will provide a suitable platform for the treatment of non-Iranian patients, especially from Muslim countries. The demand for treatment from citizens of neighbouring countries is constantly increasing. Those who visit our country for surgery or beauty treatment.
Dr Mohammad Jahangiri, director of Iran’s Health Tourism Association, has given new opportunities to the health benefits in a special interview with SAFAR magazine.
What image of Health Tourism Capabilities from Iran?
The tourism in the Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the upstream industries, along with many related affluent businesses. These revenues will be distributed at the community level and everyone will benefit from it.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has paid special attention to this issue and is planning to use the capabilities of the Iranian medical system along with the attractive capacities of the country’s tourism industry more than ever for the topic of health tourism and treatment.
Currently, the world’s $ 430 billion worth of health tourism income is less than 0.2 % of Iran’s share, according to studies, Iran’s share can be increased to 2 %, 10 times that figure.
In the health tourism industry, everything needs to be designed, and the brokers and stakeholders in this sector need to show real capacities. On the other hand, the fact is that one-third of tourism income in the world belongs to health tourism, and this is a significant figure among all tourism destinations.
What needs to be done by the Iranian Health Tourism Association?
Health services are defined in the context of a group of high-sensitivities, and all actors in this field play this role together. Travel agencies, hotels and other stakeholders are interconnected service chains that need to be able to cooperate fully and coherently.
The health tourism council is the main trustee of Iran’s health tourism. The council has high-ranking representatives from the Ministry of Health, the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Chamber of Commerce, Industries, and Mines of Iran, and the Iranian Health Tourism Association is the executive arm of this council. Through audits conducted, We cover health care facilities and agencies. Naturally, a limited number of travel agencies and hospitals are selected by the association for services in this area.
Experts from this forum are able to reduce the cost of healthcare and establish effective communication between the travel company and the health centre, thus reducing the cost of the patient’s overhead. All over the world, these unions exist and their role is to facilitate specific cases and help reduce the cost of services and the effective communication between the health service tourism chain and branding.
So if a foreign tour operator is interested in using professional healthcare services in Iran and wants accurate information, can they go to the Health Tourism Association?
Yes. Exactly. In this association, we can also communicate with sub-collections. We oversee the contracts. A tour operator can sign contracts with the association for applying the hospital’s services.
It will be interesting for SAFAR Magazine`s readers to know that Iran’s health benefits, especially for neighbouring countries to come for treatments. Is the cost of treatment reasonable than other countries?
The first priority in health tourism is the quality of health care services. The Iranian treatment service and what we introduce is at the top of the world. Like beauty services, cell therapy and infertility, success rates such as Royan and Ibn Sina are at a high level.
In ophthalmology services, corneal transplantation, retina, joint replacement and other orthopaedic topics with good prices and comparisons with the countries that have been named, the technique and precision of Iran are very high.
In the field of dentistry, implants, and prosthetics, these services are performed at very reasonable prices. The techniques of Iranian dentists are outstanding.
In the area of relaxation, there is a great climate variation in Iran. In the field of therapeutic dentistry, spas have also been defined in terms of baker’s capacity and several types of water therapy and nutrition services are defined in a very pleasant nature. The variety of herbs in traditional medicine and cardiovascular treatment is also well-suited.
Significant investments have been made in the Iranian medical system in other health care services such as glands, neurological and neurological surgery, ENT, cochlear implantation, bone marrow transplantation, and cancer treatment.
How much affordable packages and access are available from the health value chain?
Various price packages are available on residential, healthcare and peripheral services and at various levels. It attempts to define packages of prices from the origin of the movement to the departure of Iran for a secure corridor, and at each stage, it will be possible to respond and follow up.