Hossein-Ali Shahriari: patients in state hospitals must bring their own sheets and blankets

Hossein-Ali Shahriari, chairman of the health and treatment committee of the Islamic Republic's parliament, said on Wednesday, 14 October 2026, that the shortage of medical equipment and supplies in some state hospitals has reached the point where admitted patients are asked to bring their own sheets, blankets and even clothes. He declined to name the hospitals.

Shahriari called the shortage of medical equipment and supplies one of the most serious problems of the health system and warned that rising drug prices and a lack of funds for the fund for special and intractable diseases may force some patients to stop treatment.

An official admits the collapse of health services

These words from one of the most senior officials of the Islamic Republic's parliament paint a picture of the hospitals that are supposed to provide the freest and most accessible care to millions of low-income Iranians. What he describes is not a shortage of expensive imported drugs, but the absence of the most basic items of a hospital bed.

Iran's economy is going through hard days under the weight of war, sanctions and the American naval blockade. The International Monetary Fund has forecast that Iran's economy will shrink by 7.6 percent this year, and earlier the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade had put diapers, infant formula and medicine on the list of goods subject to hoarding rules, another sign of shortages of essential goods.

Patients with special and intractable diseases, from cancer patients to dialysis patients and people with haemophilia, suffer more than others from expensive drugs and the lack of funds; for this group, a break in treatment can mean death.

The chairman of the health committee of the Islamic Republic's parliament said patients in some state hospitals must bring their own sheets and blankets.