Pressure and Threats by Authorities on Physicians and Hospitals to Prevent Free Treatment of Protesters’ Injuries
Pressure and threats by authorities to prevent free treatment of protest injuries have subjected physicians and medical centers to suppression.
In recent days, coinciding with the continuation of widespread protests in Iran and the bloody crackdown on demonstrators, independent reports and multiple domestic and international sources have reported pressure and threats by security, intelligence, and judicial authorities against the medical community and hospital officials to prevent free treatment of the injured from protests.
These reports indicate that government forces are actively working not only to halt free treatment but also to monitor physicians providing medical services and threaten them with arrest.
According to reports distributed via Starlink internet, medical sources in their messages announced that Iran’s security and judicial authorities have approached private hospitals and threatened their managers that if they continue providing free treatment to protest-injured patients, they will be arrested.
In these messages, it was stated that efforts were even made to take the CEO of one well-known hospital into custody, which was met with resistance. On the other hand, it was claimed that a list of physicians treating the injured has been compiled and after the situation calms down, they will be arrested and punished.
Concurrent with this report, international media have reported that security forces have made threatening calls to physicians, asking them not to treat protest injuries or, if they do treat them, to report the patients to security institutions. According to sources, these calls were accompanied by alarm and forced physicians to reconsider their procedures.
Independent human rights sources have also reported that in some cities such as Ilam, security forces have raided hospitals, broken down doors, and sought to arrest protest-injured patients; an action that has faced resistance from staff and families of the injured and caused widespread disruption in the provision of medical services.
These reports are being published in the context of a wave of widespread protests in Iran, which according to human rights sources and foreign media, hospitals in cities such as Tehran and other areas are under pressure, facing a large wave of injured patients, and the necessary resources for treatment have increasingly been limited.
These measures are being reported at a time when the history of restricting treatment and threatening physicians in Iran’s protests dates back to previous protest periods, including in 2022 when security forces directly prevented access to treatment for the injured and pressured physicians.
Independent and credible reports indicate that Iranian security authorities are attempting to limit treatment of protest-injured patients through threats and pressure on physicians and hospitals. This policy, in addition to violating patients’ fundamental right to treatment, has also exposed medical personnel to legal and security risks. At the same time, the increasing number of injured patients and limitations on medical facilities have brought the health system in many cities close to crisis.
