ANKARA - SES will continue its actions against the collapsing health system, the problems of health workers, and the lack of access of the public to health services in Turkey. Health professional organizations, which have prepared a new action calendar, will carry out actions and activities in many places until 14 March. 

 

The coronavirus (Covid-19) epidemic, which emerged in China in December 2019, still continues to affect the whole world. While around five and half million people lost their lives due to the pandemic worldwide, 81.576 people lost their lives in Turkey. The pandemic also revealed the situation of the health system in countries. The collapse in the health system in Turkey also affected health workers as much as public health. The rights violations experienced by health workers have come to the fore with the ‘’We are exhausted, you cannot govern’’ actions that have been carried out since the beginning of the pandemic.

Health and Social Service Workers’ Union (SES) Co-Chair Selma Atabey made evaluations about the collapsed health system and the demands that they have been shouting out in many parts of Turkey for months.

 

‘Persons’ labor was usurped’

 

Expressing that they have been saying for a long time that the healthcare field has been privatized with the health transformation program, Selma said, ‘’While they used to wait in queues in hospitals and had trouble accessing medicine, the public felt relieved with the increase in the number of hospitals, but each prescription was charged at approximately 14 items. This naturally meant that the right to health, which is a universal right, was charged. The field of health has been put in a structural change, that those who have economic conditions can access health, but those who are in the system with a green card can get a limited right to health. With the establishment of the family practice system, health centers were completely eliminated. With the performance system, persons’ labor was usurped by saying less for those who work less and more for those who work more. When we look at a 19-year health transformation program, it became clear with the pandemic. We have witnessed that gaps (between rich and poor) have been created in the health system, such as the fact that a patient with Covid cannot find a place in the hospital, but those who have money are treated in special intensive care units’’.

 

‘We reject the system which enslaved’

 

Pointing out that city hospitals were established under the name of ‘’Public-Private Partnership’’ after 2017, Selma stated that a different system was established by sharing out the institutions, which should belong to the public, to the companies. Pointing out that the problem of access to health has become more noticeable with the deepening of poverty due to the economic crisis at this point, Selma said, ‘’Since September, there has been a serious problem in accessing medicines. Approximately 670 medicines have been excluded from the scope of SSI and those who need that medicine can reach the medicine by paying out of pocket. The fact that many medicines were determined in dollar-based in January and they came to Turkey based on those figures either prevented the medicines from coming to Turkey or caused to remain in warehouses. At the moment, many chronic patients have serious difficulties in accessing to medicine. The existing health transformation program neither benefit the public nor health workers. We reject this system, which enslaves health workers and usurps their labor, from the very beginning’’.

 

Demands in the health field

 

‘’While health services are provided in many public hospitals, we have announced that they encourage people to go to private hospitals. We have repeatedly said that the Minister of Health and the government are responsible for the deaths of more than 200.000 people, especially during the Covid period, due to the government’s inability to govern, and this was one of the reasons we took to the streets. There is a very serious low wage in our field due to the performance system. We had objections to the wages we received and the hours we worked, our intense working conditions, and neoliberal policies. We said we want to receive a salary above the poverty line. We wanted Covid to be considered as an occupational disease. While this was accepted in 130 countries of the world, it was not even included on the agenda in our country. Our demand for 3600 additional indicators is an issue that we have been talking about for years but cannot be solved. In the field of health, all protective systems were eliminated with the logic of ‘’I did it and it happened’’. We wanted the right to health of the people to come to light and we wanted our right. There have been budget discussions since December 1. We made efforts to allocate the main budget in the right to health and to improve the conditions of health workers. But the Minister of Health and the government have shut their ears to our demands, as they do to everything else,’’ Selma said.

 

New action plans

 

Selma stated that they are leading the works as health professional organizations, SES and Turkish Medical Association (TTB). Selma informed that their actions will restart until March 14. ‘’We are trying to do planning that includes rallies, marches and statements. We will come stronger to get our due,’’ she said.