"Expensive food has broken people's backs"; Hospitals face food supply problems due to high prices

An Iranian MP says that high prices have broken people's backs. It is predicted that due to high prices, it will be impossible to provide hot food in many medical centers, and that food will be difficult to provide in prisons and dormitories.

In a public session on Wednesday, June 15, Alborz Hosseini, a member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, criticized the sharp increase in the prices of basic goods in Iran, saying: "Today, people are enduring a lot of pain and suffering, especially in economic terms, and people expect the government to take courageous action in addressing the price increases."

He added, recalling that the prices of only six basic goods were to increase and that subsidies would be paid in return: "Today, inflation has broken people's backs."

Hosseini called on Ebrahim Raisi's government to "not make generalizations about inflation and to be persistent" because "the major economic surgery has unleashed prices."

Warning about the increase in malnutrition among patients in hospitals

In its Wednesday, June 15th issue, the Tehran-based Etemad newspaper published a report on the problem of malnutrition and the provision of food for patients in hospitals due to high prices, quoting the head of a private hospital in Tehran: "Many hospitals will not be able to provide quality food to patients because this increase in food prices was not reflected in any hospital's budget."

He, who asked not to be named, predicted that in the coming weeks, it would become "impossible" to provide hot food, especially protein-rich foods, to patients hospitalized in hospitals and many public and private health centers.

A nurse at a government hospital also says that since last year, food has been cut off for the hospital's staff, including nurses.

According to him, only nurses who work 12-hour shifts receive 15,000 tomans as food expenses, but this amount is not even enough for "a meal of bread and yogurt."

The report quotes Abdolreza Norouzi, secretary of the National Working Group for the Development and Excellence of Nutritional Sciences, as saying that the most important current problem in Iranian hospitals is hospital malnutrition, with about 24.5 percent of people hospitalized in hospitals facing this problem.

According to him, "Patients hospitalized in 60 intensive care units in hospitals across the country receive less than 62 percent of their required calories and about 54 percent of their required protein."

The report also adds that in the coming weeks, food supply and distribution will face problems not only in hospitals, but also in barracks, prisons, care centers for the elderly and unaccompanied children and people with disabilities, rehabilitation camps for socially disadvantaged people, and even boarding schools and student dormitories.

The decision of Ebrahim Raisi's government to eliminate the 4,200-toman currency accelerated the further increase in the price of goods in Iran.

Many experts have repeatedly warned about the consequences of this government decision. For example, 61 Iranian economists recently stressed in a letter while evaluating the government's economic policies: "Our warning to the government is that the country's situation is very fragile and insisting on eliminating subsidies during this miserable time will exhaust the people's patience."

In recent weeks, many people in various cities in Iran have taken to the streets to protest against inflation, the government's economic policies, and poor living conditions, chanting slogans against the government leaders.

Source: DW