Erdoğan changes his tune on emigrating doctors, says 'we owe and need them'

Photo: AA

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President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has attended an event at the Presidential Complex to mark March 14 Doctor's Day.

Giving a speech at the event, the president said, "This country owes a debt of gratitude to its doctors and needs them," changing his tune about the issue of emigrating doctors.

Last week, he had said, "Let them go, if they go. Then we will employ our newly graduated doctors. If needed, we will invite those who want to return to our country from abroad."

An unprecedented 1,405 doctors emigrated to foreign countries last year, according to the Turkish Medical Association (TTB). The association warns that this number may further increase this year due to poor working conditions and employee rights of doctors.

"In our culture, health comes first," said Erdoğan. "So much so, there are thousands of ballads and idioms about physicians and doctors in our country."

"This country owes a debt of gratitude to its doctors and needs them. The most qualified children of this country are educated in the faculties of medicine ... and mostly work in the public sector.

"We want the world to send their patients to our country to find remedies. As Turkey's potential is enough to raise the physician power it needs, our country is also becoming a center of attraction.

"During the period of the pandemic, we have proved that we are in a situation where we serve our people at the best possible level with our hospitals and physicians. In the background of this, the infrastructure we have established has a big role.

"... We believe that our country should make maximum use of the physicians that it has trained with great sacrifices and patience.

"In the health sector, there may be people who want to go abroad instead of staying in their own country. I hope those who act with this mentality will change their course to their own countries.

"I would like to express my gratitude to all the physicians who made their choices to serve their own people, regardless of the opportunities presented to them."

"Good news" for health workers

Erdoğan said they knew the expectations of doctors and health workers and had been working on legislation to solve their problems.

Their works cover the issues of violence against health workers and financial rights of both employed and retired health workers, said the president.

There will be significant improvements in the salary payment systems and additional payments, he added.  The salaries of family doctors will also increase, he noted. (TP/VK)