This doctor also visits patients in the middle of the night

For many years, the sign "Indigent patients are treated for free" was on the front of Seyed Abbas Fazel Hashemi's office in Sabzevar. A doctor who considers free treatment of needy patients and taking care of the patient at any hour of the day and night is not a sign of greatness, but a part of the doctor's professional duty.

According to Ambassador Arjan, he was born in 1326 and these days he practices medicine less due to his old age, but he still emphasizes on professional ethics and the necessity of not separating treatment from the doctor's human responsibility.

Seyyed Abbas Fazel Hashemi, emphasizing the need for doctors to adhere to professional ethics, told Ambassador Arjan: "Treating needy patients without charging a fee and attending to patients at all hours of the day and night is one of the duties of a doctor, and it should not be seen as a sign of greatness." Doctors should be culturally and ethically different from other business owners. Of course, this feature is less seen in the medical community today than in the past.

He says about his educational background and professional activity: "I graduated in 1351 and came to Sabzevar. About 10 years ago, my family settled in this city and I came here and stayed."

Fazel Hashemi worked for a while at Hilal Hamar Clinic and then in 1993 he was employed in an organization called Education Health. According to him, this work path continued in the following years with changes after the revolution.

Regarding the roots of his view of the medical profession, this doctor points to his father's memories of one of the old medical professors and explains: "My father was one of the students of one of Hajmullah's students, which greatly influenced my medical practice. Despite having a social and scientific position, this doctor did not demand money from patients. Of course, when the patient himself paid an amount, he received it. My father always explained that the professor believed that the patient should not be asked for money and that the patient would pay any amount for the treatment, he would accept it."

Fazel Hashemi emphasizes: "A doctor should not consider his profession as just an economic job and should not treat the patient like a customer in a shop. In my opinion, two things should be available to the patient; One is the amount he pays for the treatment and the other is the examination time. The patient should be able to decide about his financial ability and the time of visit should not be determined solely based on the doctor's wishes. The disease does not have a specific time and may occur in the middle of the night. Therefore, the doctor should not refuse to treat the patient because of the inappropriate time of visit. For this reason, during my professional activity, I visited patients many times in the late hours of the night and examined them without receiving payment.