The COVID-19 Pandemic: Commitments of Government Towards the Private Health Sector, with A Look at Iran

The onset of COVID-19 disease at the end of 2019 and its spread around the world as a pandemic caused special problems for countries and governments. According to Article 29 of the Constitution and considering the structure of Iran’s political economy, the government is considered the main responsible body for health policy (1). In this regard, the government has fully mobilized resources such as governmental hospitals and medical universities to treat affected patients. However, according to the news from Ministry of Health and Medical Education, about 80% of outpatient services and about 20% of inpatient services are provided by the private treatment sector (2). With this statistics, the need to involve private treatment sector in controlling the disease is felt and in most countries, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, India, the Lombardy region of Italy, South Africa ,and Peru, governments have reached out to the private sector to support and control the disease; however, of the incidence of COVID-19 in Iran and severe shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as masks, gloves, disposable guns and disinfectants such as alcohol at early onset of COVID-19 in Iran, the private medical sector had a severe problem with providing these devices. It was expensive and the government did not provide any facilities and did not make them available. While The World Health Organization (WHO) had warned of a pandemic, the government was expected to make arrangements for the production and storage of such devices.