When 15 doctors, 5 of whom are Obstetricians and Gynecologists, resigned at the Regional Training and Research Hospital in Batman, the residents of the city cannot find a queue for examination in the State hospitals.
Patients suffering from victimization have to seek the remedy in private hospitals or in neighboring provinces.
With the end of the resignation restriction imposed by the Ministry of Health on public health workers on 1 July, 15 doctors working in Batman resigned.
Batman Medical Chamber President Selahattin Oğuz, whom we interviewed for the news, said, “Among the physicians who resigned, we have the only gastroenterology specialist in our province and our pediatric surgery specialists, of whom there are only two.”
Problems do not end at the hospital, which took 12 years to build
The Maternity and Children's Hospital, which took 12 years to build due to the problems experienced in the tenders, was transformed into a Training and Research Hospital with a last-minute decision when it was going to start accepting patients in 2020.
Not enough doctors were appointed to the hospital, the workload of the staff increased due to the intensity experienced especially during the pandemic process in the hospital, which provides services with insufficient staff, and it was stated that the doctors could not handle the patient density experienced, and they found the solution by resigning.
"I haven't been able to find a date for months, I won't know if my baby's heart stops"
5 Obstetricians from the public sector resigned. All 3 experts had to go to other cities for minor training. This situation causes many patients to suffer. When women cannot find an appointment line in public, they have to go to private hospitals to be examined.
Patients whose financial situation cannot meet the private hospital have to wait for months to find an appointment.
Z.A. is one of them. Z.A, who did not want her name to be mentioned in the news, was 5 months pregnant and was only examined once.
The young woman expresses her grievance with these words:
''When I call 182, they say that there is no queue for an appointment. I can't follow my baby's development because I can't find a turn. Maybe I'll find out months later if his heart stops. I cannot go to private hospitals because my financial situation is insufficient, so I am very worried,''she said.
“Breast cancer is seen in 1.3 million women every year”
Women, who are required to have a doctor's examination every six months for routine health checks, have serious problems in accessing health due to the recent resignations.
According to the data of the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is diagnosed in 1.3 million women worldwide every year. The number of women diagnosed with breast cancer in Turkey in 2020 is 18 thousand.
Many women we interviewed for the news stated that they were worried about not being able to find an appointment for an examination in Turkey, where the incidence of cancer is so high.
“Health should be removed from being dependent on politics”
Deniz Topkan, Batman Branch Co-chair of the Health and Social Service Workers Union (SES), who argues that the cause of the problems in the field of health is unqualified health administrators, said:
“When managing an important field such as health, the presence of qualified and knowledgeable managers gains importance once again. The effort of the health administrators who occupy the seats to use political language and to attract the attention of those who appoint them, unfortunately, disrupts the work peace and eliminates the team understanding. This makes health institutions inoperable.”
There is a serious shortage of doctors in the Regional Training and Research Hospital, which serves approximately 1 million people, including patients from surrounding provinces and districts.
Batman SES Branch President Topkan underlined that health should be removed from being dependent on politics and said, "Access to health should be free, qualified and in the mother tongue with the awareness of being a social state."