Health Corps in Action:
Ministry of Health (1968)

The role of the Health Corps in the 4th 5-year plan

In the 4th Plan, which begins in 1968, the Health Corps has been allotted some 10 percent of the total Ministry of Health budget. The Health Corps will continue to be the major instrument of extending medical care and public health to the rural areas of Iran.

The target is to cover some 75 percent of rural Iran by the end of the 4th Plan. To achieve this, both an expanded Health Corps and greater coordination in the field is foreseen. A significant aspect of the expansion will be in the induction of women doctors, nurses and nurse aids, along with highly trained specialists to both broaden the scope of services and raise the quality of medical care. 

More hospitals and clinics will be established, raising the number from the present 360 to 600 clinics, along with a network of rural medical centers offering hospital accommodations and facilities. 

The Ministry of Health is adopting the Health Corps mobile team technique in the operation of all rural clinics, establishing it as the national pattern. In overlapping functions, greater coordination will be sought with the other Revolutionary Corps. Thus, the health education program in the rural areas will be extended through the Literacy Corps, increasing the number of effective rural health educators into the many thousands.

By the extension of the training period to six months against the previous four, and the extension of field duty from 14 to 18 months, the average Health Corps physician will be better trained for the job and work at it longer, utilizing the experience so far gained in the field for a more effective program.

One trend is for physicians to find an attraction in the rural areas after service in the Health Corps. Many continue to work in the area to which they were assigned, after their formal tour of duty has been completed. Before the Health Corps, attracting physicians to rural areas or even small towns met with far less success.

The result in the 4th Plan should be a greater number of more thoroughly trained physicians in a more coordinated and effective program extending over twice as much of rural Iran as was previously covered.

Through the Health Corps, by moving the doctors into the rural areas in an effective organization, rural health is about 20 years ahead of where it might have been if previous or classical methods had been employed. In the 4th Plan this gain of some 20 years will be further consolidated and advanced as a major aspect of the revolution in Iran brought forth by the Shah and the people.