Doctors lash out at Health Ministry after ban on resignations, leaves

Click to read the article in Turkish (1) (2)

Sending a circular to all 81 provinces, the Ministry of Health has banned healthcare workers from quitting their jobs and taking annual leaves.

Those who will retire because of the age limit or disabilities have been exempted from the ban, according to the circular.

CLICK - Turkey reports highest daily COVID-19 deaths since early May2

Resignations of healthcare personnel working at both public and private hospitals will not be accepted, the ministry has stated.

The new measures have been taken in order to prevent the spread of the disease and ensure that the fight against the outbreak is carried out with a sufficient number of experienced personnel, according to the circular signed by Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca.

The ministry has also canceled annual leaves until further notice while "legal excuse leaves" (marriage, death, birth, illness and accompaniment) will be allowed.

Only those holding an executive position at a union can take unpaid leave as per Articles 77 and 78 of Law No. 657, according to the circular.

Pregnant health workers will be able to take leave between the 24th and 32nd weeks of their pregnancy.

The appointment of healthcare staff to a different province due to their spouses' retirement or education reasons has also been banned.

Turkish Medical Association: You have deceived us

After the circular was published last night (October 27), the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) made a statement on Twitter, saying that the bans were "against the right to work and human rights."

The association also pointed out that Covid-19 has not yet been recognized as an occupational disease for health workers.

"We are not going anywhere. We are here. From Hippocrates of Kos to Galen of Pergamon, we have been providing health to people, fighting epidemics, healing people as the practitioners of a profession that has been devoted to people for thousands of years," it said, using the hashtag, "Don't health workers have a life?" (#SağlıkcınınCanıYokMu) 

"We got ill, you cut our salary. You said 'We'll make additional payments;' you either didn't or distributed it unfairly. You have deceived us since the start of the pandemic by concealing the scale of the outbreak. And now, you are preventing our rights to leave, resignation and retirement!

"We/health workers have done and are doing our part. You do your part. Stop writing success stories; protect physicians, health workers, our citizens." (EKN/AS/VK)