‘Health workers’ deaths could have been prevented by additional measures’

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The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) has released its report titled "What the Deaths of Healthcare Workers in Turkey Tell."

Focusing specifically on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the first case of which was officially confirmed in Turkey on March 11, 2020, the TTB report has indicated that the number of healthcare workers who lost their lives in the first 3 months of the pandemic was much lower than the number of deaths that occured in the following 12 months.

According to the TTB, this situation manifests that no evaluation was made and no measures were taken in the meantime. 

The TTB has stressed, "If the causes of deaths in the first 3 months of the pandemic had been well-analyzed and additional measures had been taken based on this analysis, all deaths could have been prevented."

Moreover, the TTB report has emphasized that "if the Ministry of Health had been able to vaccinate healthcare workers in December 2020, as it had previously announced, a considerable number of COVID-19 deaths that occured in 2021 would not have happened, either."

"The fact that the average age of the deceased healthcare workers is low is yet another indication that the government does not protect healthcare workers sufficiently," the TTB has indicated.

403 active healthcare workers lost their lives

The TTB has also announced in its report that 403 active healthcare workers lost their lives in Turkey due to COVID-19 as of May 31, 2021, adding that these deaths have been evaluated by the Association in terms of their age, gender, province and institution of duty, distribution by months, occupation, incidence of chronic illnesses and mortality rate by occupation.

'Recognized it as an occupational disease'

In the introduction to the report, the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) has emphasized the importance and necessity of a scientific management of the pandemic, noting that "the deaths of healthcare workers can be prevented by managing the outbreak scientifically, returning the favor for healthcare workers' labor and improving their working conditions."

"What is sad is that the rights of health laborers in Turkey are seized even after their deaths," the TTB has protested, once again calling on the authorities to recognize the COVID-19 as an occupational disease for health workers. Saying that the legislative proposal of the TTB in this context was not debated at the Parliament, the TTB has "called on the ones who look for a causal link with regard to occupational disease to read its report 'What the Deaths of Healthcare Workers in Turkey Tell'."

Details from the report

Some highlights from the TTB report are as follows:

"36 percent of COVID-19 deaths are among physicians; 13.2 percent are among pharmacists and 6 percent are among nurses/ midwives.

"Of the 174,187 physicians in Turkey, 71,933 are women and 102,254 are men. The rate of COVID-19 deaths among physicians is 8.32 per ten thousand; this rate is 13.78 per ten thousand among male physicians and 0.56 per ten thousand among female physicians.

"The rate of COVID-19 deaths among pharmacists is 14.70 per ten thousand while it is 0.83 per ten thousand among nurses/ midwives.

"While the majority of the pandemic deaths apparently occur among the people aged 65 and over in Turkey, the average age of the deceased healthcare workers is 55.3. While this average age is 59.7 among the physicians who died of COVID-19, it is 67.3 among pharmacists and 40.9 among nurses and midwives. 38.9 percent of the deceased healthcare personnel at and below the age of 34 and 43.8 percent of the ones in the 35-49 age group were working in the status of workers.

"Of the workers of emergency healthcare service stations who died of COVID-19, 11 of the 12 workers were ambulance drivers."

'More people died in private sector than in public'

According to the TTB, the fact that the mortality rate at and under the age of 50 among the health personnel working in the status of workers was higher is an indication that the pandemic is class related.

The report has further underlined that the number of deceased physicians, dentists and pharmacists in the private sector are higher than the number of the deceased personnel working in public institutions.

The TTB has reiterated that "the deaths of healthcare workers are a reflection of the poor management of the pandemic."

"Firstly, Turkey has either concealed the outbreak data or announced them deficiently and made unscientific decisions during the pandemic; secondly, it has not included its own constituents into the pandemic process; thirdly, it has not offered sufficient economic and social support to society; fourtly, the case- and population-based interventions cannot be successfully managed."

Against this backdrop, the TTB has called on the Ministry of Health to set up a commission by including all shareholders in the process, to inquire, document and report the causes of health workers' deaths and to share the results of this sudy with the public. (KÖ/SD)