‘Struggling against violence is our duty’

* Photo: Daily Evrensel

Click to read the article in Turkish

The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) 72nd Grand Congress was held in the canteen of Ankara University Morphology Department yesterday (September 27). Two groups, the Effective Democratic TTB (Etkin Demokratik TTB) and Independent Physicians Union (Bağımsız Hekimler Birliği), competed to be elected to the administration of the association. 

Campaigning with the slogan "We will not give up on life, right to healthcare and our professional organization," the Effective Democratic TTB Group won by receiving 240 of 303 valid votes.

Expected to be elected the Chair of the TTB Central Council in the first ordinary session of the TTB, Forensic Expert Prof. Dr. Şebnem Korur Fincancı has spoken to bianet.

'We will keep sharing the truth'

Underlining that violence against healthcare workers and public health will be the main items on the TTB agenda, Korur Fincancı has said:

"The Effective Democratic TTB Group had already been in the administration, so there is a continuity. It is only a change of duty.

"Our friends did really good work, especially during the pandemic. They were involved in the pandemic process with the COVID-19 Monitoring Group, they tried to disseminate accurate information. By doing this, they forced the government, which did not share information, to do so.

"And, in the upcoming period, we will go ahead with the works initiated by our friends. Our priority is to take steps that will protect public health."

'We will struggle for our rights'

"Protecting public health essentially means preventing diseases," she has noted and raised concerns about the recently opened city hospitals: "They are trying to change our lives with city hospitals with guaranteed numbers of patients. We will struggle against all these, we will act not based on patient-guaranteed hospitals, but based on preventive medicine.

"We are a professional organization prioritizing the public, we will continue working by giving priority to public good and public health.

"This country has a reality where healthcare is made available to the capital as benefits. With this mindset, all healthcare workers have been exposed to the exploitation of the capital. Therefore, we will keep struggling for the rights of all physicians and healthcare workers."

'A nurse gets 20 TRY as additional payment'

Korur Fincancı has also addressed the increasing numbers of resignations in healthcare during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic:

"Minister of Health says that they have improved the economic conditions of health workers through additional payments. But none of this reflects the truth. A nurse gets 20 lira additional payment, which is a shame.

"An arrangement needs to be made by improving the main salary, not by making additional payments and considering the performances. Health workers can be prevented from burning out only if it is ensured that they feel safe. For this reason, we will keep struggling to make sure that the working conditions of all physicians and healthcare workers are improved."

'Violence is not only in healthcare'

Prof. Korur Fincancı has also touched upon the remarks of Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chair Devlet Bahçeli, who targeted the TTB and called on the authorities to close down the association:

"Professional organizations are organizations that look at things critically. When criticisms are difficult to swallow, there have always been pressures and threats and there will also be in the future. It is not surprising. But we have always walked on our path and we will continue to do so.

"The problem of this period is the outbreak and we will keep struggling against the outbreak. Another issue on our agenda is violence in healthcare. We need to reinforce the program of struggle against violence in healthcare.

'Violence is gradually increasing'

"Violence is not only in healthcare. Violence is quite prevalent in society in general and violence is gradually escalating. If the Minister of Interior threatens the Constitutional Court President in a country, the patient and his/her relative threatens the physician.

"There is nothing to be surprised about. First of all, it needs to be prevented that the Interior Minister threatens the Constitutional Court President. We need to eliminate this environment so that we can protect physicians and health workers from violence.

"On Friday, at the İstanbul Faculty of Medicine, a healthcare worker was wounded in his eye by the relative of a patient because he warned him to wear a mask. One calls a physician in Trabzon province and tells him 'don't let your children be orphaned.' What lays the ground for this is the attitude of the state that legitimizes violence. It is our duty to struggle against the state's legitimization of violence.

'Health is not only about the well-being of body'

"Health is not only about the well being of the body. The human is a biopsychosocial being and, therefore, we have to ensure that the steps to be taken will maintain the biological, social and mental well-being of people.

"It is sometimes said that TTB takes up political attitudes, it is said that the TTB does not act like a professional organization. First of all, the TTB is a democratic mass organization, it tries to intervene in all areas to ensure the general well-being of human beings.

"For this reason, it is an organization that said, 'War is a public health problem.' We will struggle not only against the outbreak, but also against the wars and attitudes that harm human life as well as the lives of all living beings that we live with." (RT/SD)