COVID-19 in Turkey: ‘800 health workers have resigned’

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

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Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) İstanbul MP Gamze Akkuş İlgezdi has released a written statement about the latest situation of health workers amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Raising concerns over the increasing number of COVID-19 deaths and rising infection rates, Akkuş İlgezdi has indicated that healthcare workers have been resigning due to their adverse working conditions.

"For how much longer can physicians and healthcare workers who have been making superhuman efforts for 7 months keep on working in these conditions," she has asked and added, "This work tempo and developments have worn out physicians and healthcare workers psychologically."

Underlining that health workers in the country have burned out in this process, she has noted that "they are trying to work in such a state."

In this context, CHP's Akkuş İlgezdi has also referred to the data of health organizations: "According to the assessments of health organizations, nearly 800 resignations in this process were directly related to working conditions, inability to access personal protective equipment and workload. But, the authorities are making no efforts to improve these conditions."

'Several of them not received additional payment'

Gamze Akkuş İlgezdi has also criticized that "the good news about additional payments to be made to healthcare workers created a public perception that they would be given really high salaries."

Raising concerns that this perception among the society is "one of the main reasons behind the violence targeting physicians and health workers", she has said, "To top it all, despite all those good news, several physicians and health workers have not received their additional payments."

'Outbreak is getting out of control'

"The outbreak is getting out of control," the MP has warned further and shared the following information in brief:

"While only the 3rd Section was a pandemic hospital in the Ankara City Hospital during normalization, the 1st and 2nd Sections have also been turned into pandemic hospitals now. The room capacities have been increased to two. The Ankara Numune Hospital has been partly reopened and started receiving patients. But this also has not been enough and adult COVID-19 patients are not hospitalized in children's hospitals."

'Why don't you employ new personnel?'

Concluding her remarks, Akkuş İlgezdi has also indicated that while the Ministry of Health do not employ new personnel to work in service operations, skilled personnel are not employed in this process.

Against the backdrop of this lacking health personnel, "the relatives of coronavirus patients are forced to accompany the patients as hospital attendants in pandemic conditions," the MP has protested furter:

"What kind of an understanding of measures is that the relatives of COVID-19 patients are kept as hospital attendants without any protective equipment? While there are so many unemployed health workers and they would selflessly fulfill these duties, why don't you think of employing them?" (RT/SD)