Health Workers Take to the Streets

Turkey's Physicians Association(TTB), Health and Social Services Workers Union (SES), Turkey's Association of Dentists (TDB), Revolutionary Health Workers Union (Dev Sağlık İş) and İstanbul Chamber of Pharmacists (İEO) have begun joint protests against government's policies.

Members of the organizations took to the streets on March 1, demanding the abrogation of government's plans to close district clinics. Street protests will continue throughout March, they declared.

We act against the trend to open the health arena to market forces, to privatizations and paid health services. Our protests also aim at informing the public as well as protecting health workers' basic rights" said Gençay Gürsoy, TTB chair.

The organization lists their demands as follows:

* Pilot application of family medicine should be generalized to cover all the country.

* District clinics are public property; instead of closing them the government should open new ones in needy places.

* First step medical workers should receive better basic rights and receive damages for their conditions.

* A multi-step health system must be established and a dispatching mechanism should be put into place.

"We constantly stated our objection to government's plans to transform the health sector. This is a World Bank inflicted policy which aims at introducing market forces into the sector, disregarding the social aspect of the services" said Gürsoy.

On March 11, a referendum will be brought to health workers around country to gather reactions to government policies.

Also, a partial strike will be put into effect on March 14, on Medicine Day. Furthermore, a conference will gather together to discuss educational hospitals and their problems between March 23-24. (EZÖ/EÜ)