Iran to welcome more international patients
During the fourth International Health Congress of Islamic Countries, held this year at Tehran’s Homa Hotel, Iran health officials unveiled their plans to make Tehran a health tourism hub
Speaking at the event, Tehran Province Governor General Anoushirvan Mohseni-Bandpey said: “There are many great potentials in Tehran that can attract hundreds and thousands of foreign tourists to be treated at hospitals in the capital.”
Alireza Zaali, President of the International Health Congress of Islamic Countries, explained that Iran has taken great leaps in developing cutting-edge scientific technologies. Indeed, according to the Health Ministry, medical travel contributed to around $1.2 billion of the country’s economy between March 2017 and March 2018, with around 300,000 medical tourists visiting the country in 2017 - and the Ministry added that this number almost doubled the following year.
Treata General Hospital, which is located to the west of the Iranian capital, has plans to welcome more international patients. “We are not limiting ourselves to regional patients. In Treata we are thinking to open a VIP section for Europeans, especially the British, if and when the country leaves the European Union,” said Fatemeh Qafuri, Head of Tehran’s Treata General Hospital’s International Patients Department. “Iran’s health section is very interesting for Europeans for state-of-the-art equipment used in treatment. It’s also very cost-effective – a doctor’s visit is only $10, which is nothing for a European national in comparison to their own or other countries.”
Iran hopes to increase its number of medical tourists to roughly two million by 2025 (the Iranian year of 1404).