Health & Medical Care System: Article 29 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran emphasizes that every Iranian has the right to enjoy the highest attainable level of health. The Ministry of Health and Medical Education is mandated to fulfill this goal through designing and implementing a national-level health policy. Yet, the Ministry of Health and Medical Education delegates its implementation to medical universities across the country. There is at least one medical university in every province. The chancellor of a medical university is the highest health authority in the province who reports to the Minister of Health and Medical Education and is in charge of public health, health care provision and supervision, and medical education.
Health care and public health services are provided through the health network which was established in 1970s. This network consists of a referral system, starting at primary care health houses and health centers and going through secondary-level hospitals tertiary hospitals in major cities.
The health houses, as the first contact units, refer patients to rural health centers. These centers are responsible for elective and emergency case management, supporting and supervising. The public sector provides primary, secondary, and tertiary health services. The emphasis of the government on primary health care over the last two decades has made the public sector the main provider of primary health care services across the country. Some primary health care services such as prenatal care and vaccination are provided free of charge in public facilities. The public sector also provides a considerable part of secondary and tertiary health services in the province. The private sector plays a significant role in health care provision in Iran. The private sector mainly focuses on secondary and tertiary health care in urban areas. There are many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) active in health issues in Iran. NGOs are mainly active in special fields like childhood cancer, breast cancer, diabetes, thalassemia, and so on.
There are about 1000 health houses and 300 health centers in East Azerbaijan providing primary health care services for people. Also there are 11 teaching hospitals as well as 18 district hospitals with total bed capacity 6381.