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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.
The bulletin shared the following findings in brief:
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)