COVID-19 in İzmir: ‘Current situation overburdens our healthcare system’

Click to read the article in Turkish

İzmir Medical Chamber Executive Board held a press conference at the chamber's conference hall yesterday (November 17).

The conference was attended by İzmir Medical Chamber Chair Dr. Lütfi Çamlı, Secretary General Dr. Nuri Seha Yüksel and Executive Board members Dr. Zeynep Altın and Prof. Süleyman Kaynak.

Before the conference began, a moment of silence was observed in memory of Family Physician Cengiz Çil, who lost his life due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the district of Urla on November 16.

While the conference was also streamed online, some highlights from the statement read out by Chamber Chair Çamlı were as follows:

"The earthquake that we had a short time ago has been added to the outbreak. It has been announced by the official authorities that on the 10th day after the earthquake, the city witnessed twice as many cases as the day when the earthquake happened.

CLICK - Death toll rises to 115 in İzmir earthquake

"At least 3 thousand people can test positive for the virus a day. Ambulances are having difficulty in carrying cases.

"The available services and intensive care units in hospitals fall short; new COVID-19 services and intensive care units are opened.

"The number of patients who cannot access their medication for days is gradually increasing. There are serious problems with distributing patients highly specific medicine with side effects.

"Family physicians are protesting. They cannot manage to track the positive cases and contacts, whose numbers are gradually increasing.

"This problem cannot be coped with by placing the responsibility solely on citizens, on the individual. We are at a point which overburdens our healthcare system's response capacity to a considerable extent." (DŞ/SD)