Gamze Taşçıer, a representative in Turkey’s National Assembly from the major opposition party, prepared a report on the health care system of Turkey and exposed that it was not ready to face a serious challenge such as the one brought by the coronavirus pandemic.
Since privatization and closure of public health institutions Turkey’s health care system has been in jeopardy. Coronavirus brought a very grave issue to heart.
Gamze Taşçıer, a representative in Turkey’s National Assembly from the major opposition party, prepared a report on the health care system of Turkey and exposed that it was not ready to face a serious challenge such as the one brought by the coronavirus pandemic.
She spelled out in her report that when the demand peaks in healthcare, Turkey stands in a much worse position with respect to other countries. She asked the government to prepare immediately to take all measures to minimize the spread of the virus because the entire health system in Turkey could collapse.
The report listed the vulnerabilities of the Turkish health system with numbers and information:
• There are 1534 hospitals in Turkey. However, when a health crisis hits, what becomes important is the number of beds available. Currently Turkey has 231,913 hospital beds.
• Turkey is the 9th from the bottom in the OECD countries for the number of beds for 1000 patients. Turkey has 2.8 beds per 1000 patients. Japan has 13.1, Germany has 8, France 6 and Italy has 3.2.
• The latest figures show Turkey has only 24,071 beds for adult intensive care hospital beds.
• Turkey is the last in the OECD countries with 1.9 doctors per 1000 patients. In Austria this figure is 5.2, Germany 4.3, Italy 4.0 and France 3.4.
Sendika.org News (M.B.)
