Bankruptcy And Debts

Consolidation Debt Mortgage Saturday, 9th July 2005
Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Jul. 09 - Half of Iran's 140,000-strong nurses are unemployed and searching for a job, according to the head of the Nurses Organisation of Iran.

Speaking to local reporters on the sidelines of a nurses' conference in the city of Semnan (eastern Iran), Qazanfar Mirzabaigi said, "Half of them [140,000 nurses] are employed and between 65,000 to 70,000 are unemployed and seeking employment".

"Annually, between six to seven thousand individuals gain their degree from Nursing Colleges throughout the country", Mirzabaigi added.

Hospital privatisation is seen as a major contributing factor to the current unemployment rate of nurses. It has led to many people with illnesses choosing to avoid important surgeries because of rising hospital costs.

High costs of medical care, an ailing health insurance system, and a convoluted bureaucracy governing the public health sector are causing serious discontent among ordinary Iranians. Some who can afford the costs travel to Dubai or Europe to seek medical treatment, while the poor are the biggest victims of Iran's mismanaged health system.

In late December, the head of the Medical Department of the University of Gilan announced that more than half of Iran's hospitals had declared bankruptcy in the past four years.

Dr. Fariborz Ghanaati stated that since the government introduced a scheme four years ago to privatize the majority of Iran's hospitals, 350 out of the 550 hospitals throughout the country have declared bankruptcy.

Corporate failures totaled 985 cases last month, compared with 744 cases registered in June in 2006.Debts left behind by insolvent companies fell 12.2 percent from a year ago to 336.43 billion yen ($2.76 billion).All industries registered a rise in bankruptcies compared to the same month a year earlier, with the construction and retail industries recording their highest number of business failures since April 2005.In the first half of the year, 5, 394 bankruptcies were registered, up 16.6 % from the same period a year earlier. Debts fell to 2.573 trillion yen ($21.09 billion), down 8.3 % compared to the first half of 2006.

[ Comment, Edit or Article Submission ]