'Eighty medical school graduates leave Turkey every month'

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In the last two years, 3,041 doctors went to Germany to work. Currently, about 3,000 doctors are looking forward to leaving the country as well.

Despite having different healthcare systems, the US, the UK and Germany are the most preferred countries among students of medicine.

The number of doctors in Turkey is about 160,000 with 500 patients per doctor. Turkey needs 80,000 more doctors to reach the OECD average of 341 patients per doctor.

About 15,000 students graduate from faculties of medicine across Turkey every year.

"No one is happy"

Roleda Aydın graduated from Uludağ University Faculty of Medicine this year. She spent the last year of school in Germany for an internship.

She says she worked at hospitals in the last three years and saw difficult conditions.

"In the last year, when everyone was preparing for the Examination for Specialty in Medicine (TUS), I thought about it. I asked 'Do I want this?'

"I have already put in enough effort. If I'm going to work hard for something, I want to achieve what I want.

"Neither the assistants nor the professors are happy! They don't have any spare time for themselves. And there is no such thing as they earn a lot, contrary to the perception in society."

It's possible to make good money in the private sector but she is against the privatization of healthcare services, says Roleda.

"When I start a family, I will have to do things that I never wanted due to financial concerns, such as working at a private hospital or opening a doctor's office. Unfortunately, there is a rapidly continuing privatization in our country.

"If I don't do this, I'll be on call for extremely long times in a university hospital or a state hospital and continue this until the end of my life, hence I won't be able to live the life I deserve."

Considering these problems, she started to explore healthcare systems in other countries, says Roleda. "The most reasonable country is Germany. But the more people want to go to a country, the more difficult the process becomes. In the past, they could start their specialization training only with a language exam. Now two different exams are requested from us until we get equivalence."

Dreams to leave

Azat Polat, a third-year student at Medipol University, says he hasn't been happy with the conditions of education and his relationship with the professors.

"I had been dreaming about leaving [the country] when I was at high school as well. University entrance exams are an exhausting process for students. It's a long marathon. Private courses, private lessons, boutique courses...

"Education is a sector in Turkey, Everything is about money. Doors are open for those who give better money. The system, practices, and names change too often ... I've been aware of this reality since high school. I'm very tired."

Azat says he wants to go to the US, the UK, Canada or Denmark. "I have at least 15 friends who dropped out of school and went abroad," he says.

931 people left Turkey last year

Turkish Medical Association (TTB) Secretary-General Vedat Bulut says about 80 medical students leave Turkey every month.

"This figure was 59 per year in 2012, 802 in 2018, 1,047 in 2019 and 931 in 2020," he says.

"Besides, those who go abroad are better-qualified physicians who have educated themselves better. Within a year, we get feedback that they are happy.

"Especially physicians who know a foreign language prefer to go abroad. There is a shortage of physicians in the West and physicians from Turkey use this opportunity."

Young doctors in Turkey are worried about the future, he says. "Increasing cases of violence in healthcare, insecurity, security investigations, human rights violations, economic conditions... These have an impact." (MEÖ/DŞ/VK)