‘Cancer screenings decrease by 90 percent in Turkey during the pandemic’

* Photo: Chokniti Khongchum / Pexels

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The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) holds "Pandemic Bulletins" every Wednesday. This week's Pandemic Bulletin was held online yesterday (July 7), specifically focusing on the "Problems in Accessing Non-COVID-19 Healthcare Services During the Pandemic."

The bulletin was presented by TTB Central Council member Dr. Çiğdem Arslan. In the introduction to her speech, Arslan underlined that the offer of several healthcare services such as the chronic patient follow-ups, cancer screenings and rehabilitation services has been postponed. Arslan noted that these deaths are deferrable, just like the COVID-19 deaths.

Applications to hospitals have decreased

The bulletin shared the following findings in brief:

• According to the observations in the field, the number of applications to public hospitals has dropped by 30-40 percent and to private hospitals by 10-20 percent. According to the Social Security Institution (SGK) data, the decrease in the number of applications to public hospitals has been 56 percent.
• The number of appointments from the MRHS online appointment system has dropped by 30 million when compared to 2019.
• While the number of people who had complementary health insurance was 1 million 2 thousand 187 in June 2019, it increased by 49.8 percent to 1 million 501 thousand 425 in June 2020.
• Of the 10 million 541 people who had premium debts of general health insurance, nearly 5 million have been unable to pay these debts.
• The income gap has reached an 11-year high. Broad unemployment has increased during the pandemic and become 27.4 percent.
• The extra deaths in poor neighborhoods have increased by at least 2.5 times when compared to other neighborhoods.
• During the pandemic, the number of applications to hospitals due to heart attacks has dropped by 47.1 percent.
• According to the Health Ministry, the number of cancer screenings has dropped by 70 percent in the primary healthcare services while the TTB Family Physicians' Branch December 2020 Survey says that cancer screenings have decreased by 90 percent.

Recommendations

Arslan underlined that the problems in accessing health services during the pandemic have been stemming from a series of reasons such as the deepening of the existing inequalities, curfew and and age-based discrimination, the state's emphasis of "citizens are responsible", the absense of a health organization oriented towards the outbreak, the closure of the hospitals in the city centers following the opening of city hospitals.

Against this backdrop, Arslan also offered a series of recommendations to solve these problems, such as offering economic and social support for society to eliminate the inequalities, ensuring that health services are equal, of quality, free and accessible, putting an end to wrong outbreak policies that cause the outbreak to be aggravated and eliminating vaccine hesitancy. (AS/SD)