Impact of the sanctions on the procurement of capital medical equipment in the Iranian health system : a systematic review

Today, medical equipment has become an integral part of all sections of healthcare systems and a significant portion of the costs in healthcare is allocated to this sector. Optimal utilization of equipment requires them to be kept operational and safe in most of their life. Therefore, providing appropriate medical equipment is of utmost importance. This study reviewed the existing literature and extracted the relevant articles using the appropriate keywords in the national and international databases. The international sanctions is one of the critical factors affecting the procurement of medical equipment as a result of which the people of the sanctioned countries suffer the most. According to this review, the sanctions have led to increased health costs and tariffs and increased share of direct payment by people for the healthcare expenses. The money transfer problems have caused import of medicine and medical equipment to be very long. These factors have led to a negative impact on the availability and price of these items and consequently the healthcare in Iran. Since Iran needs to import many health-related raw materials and services and on the other hand, the import of these goods, declines under the economic sanctions conditions. Therefore, actions should be taken through the required policies such as motivational policies, maximum utilization of domestic capacities, foreign joint ventures and trade agreements with other countries in order to produce a part of the necessary capital and intermediary goods within the country, considering the available capabilities, so that the country’s production capacity does not suffer.