Physicians find ruling AKP's draft law on violence in healthcare ‘insufficient’

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The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) submitted a draft law foreseeing amendments to the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) and some laws the other day (March 16). The law draft is poised to introduce a series of amendments to the legislation on both male violence against women and the violence in healthcare and malpractice cases againt healthcare workers.

Calling for a new legislation on violence against healthcare workers and offering its own recommendations for a long time, the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) has released a statement about the draft.

Released by the TTB's Legal Bureau, the written statement has noted that "even though the TTB's recommendations regarding violence in healthcare are partly included in the draft law, it is not sufficient".

'It will not offer solutions'

The TTB has stated that "while the draft contains some recommendations of the TTB, it is devoid of an holistic view", explaining that "in order to mitigate violence in healthcare, the healthcare system, which has got worse further as a result of the transformation in healthcare program, and the working conditions getting harsher as a result of this must be improved first".

The Association has stressed that "the legal arrangements introduced for show only without analyzing the reasons behind violence in healthcare, which has markedly increase following the deadlock in the health system and deepening economic crisis, will not offer any solutions".

'It will lead to new problems'

Citing the details of the legislative proposal, the TTB has said that the Professional Liability Board foreseen in the draft will bring about new problems, let alone offering a solution to the problem of malpractice.

The TTB has explained: "There is a healthcare environment where the Ministry of Health has been stripped of its power to set its own policy, what is a medical procedure is determined by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance and what is prescribable is determined by the Social Security Institution (SGK) based on its power of reimbursement. In a structure where physicians face attempts to completely restrict their professional autonomy and what is expected of healthcare executives is to ensure that 'healthcare workers do what they are told', addressing a fault arising from healthcare services individually is far from resolving the problem".

Accordingly, the Turkish Medical Association has underlined that "the board desired to be established by the legislation will lead the protectors of the system to hide their own faults". Noting that Turkey is the only country where the number of applications to emergency services is higher than the population and the number of applications to medical facilities per person has increased by 10 percent in a year, the TTB has said that "the Professional Liability Board will bring no meaningful solution other than choosing who is to be punished and postponing the current cases".

The Association has recommended that the faults stemming from healthcare services should be publicly met, their causes should be researched and examined and authorities should focus on solution methods:

"As a matter of fact, the draft law will bring about new problems rather than resolving the malpractice problem".

Concluding the statement, the TTB has said that the legislative proposal of the AKP "does not have the capacity to meet the expectations about either violence in healthcare or malpractice". It has defined the proposal as a "disappointment" and called on the authorities to "fully implement the recommendations of the TTB to introduce effective legal regulations". (AÖ/SD)