‘Hospitals are full in Mardin, we refer patients to other provinces,’ says union

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

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The Health and Social Service Laborers' Union (SES) Mardin Branch has released a written statement about the latest situation in Turkey's southeastern province of Mardin amid COVID-19 pandemic.

Raising concerns that "the number of cases has gone well beyond the expectations in Mardin," the statement has read, "After the 'normalization' started, the outbreak management has got out of control in our province and the total number of our cases has approached 5 thousand."

The union has also noted that "COVID-19 patients are now accepted even by the hospitals not declared pandemic hospitals."

"Almost all services and intensive care units have been full in hospitals and patients are now referred to other provinces," the union has warned.

'Number of infected health personnel hits 200'

The union has raised concerns that as hospitals are almost full in the city, it restricts the access of patients with other diseases to health services and decreases the quality of health services provided to the aged.

"Due to the increasing number of cases, there have been shortcomings in providing both the medicine used in treatment and the personal protective equipments used by healthcare laborers," the union has noted further. "In parallel with the increasing contact of healthcare laborers with cases, the number of our infected health personnel has hit 200."

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'Number of daily cases has reached 150'

According to the statement, the number of daily cases in Mardin has recently reached 150. "However, we know that the real number of cases is much higher than the detected number, which is the case not only for Mardin, but for Turkey as a whole," the union has indicated further.

"As far as we have been informed by the health laborers' organizations in other provinces, the number of cases in the region has been over 1,000," the union has said and added," Even in such days, the Ministry of Health announces 1,000 new cases a day. We have made serious observations that the number of daily cases announced by the Ministry of Health is just the number of hospitalized patients."

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'Contact tracing works have lost their effectiveness'

Raising further concerns in the statement, the SES Union has underlined that "the contact tracing works aimed at finding the source of cases have unfortunately lost their effectiveness as the ones identified to have contact with COVID-19 patients are now not tested, but solely placed in quarantine."

"However, as people are quarantined for 14 days without paying attention to their economic or psychological conditions, we see that the cases no longer give information about the ones who were really in contact and the ones who were in contact do not fulfill the requirements of quarantine.

"In addition to healthcare laborers' infection with the virus and their passing as a result of it, there is now also a psychological, economic and social weariness among the public."

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'Prioritize not economy, but public health'

Concluding the statement, the Mardin Branch of the SES Union has called on the authorities "to manage the pandmeic measures not based on economic or political concerns, but based on scientific data and to prioritize not the economy, but public health."

Underlining the importance of sharing the data in a transparent and open manner, the Union has also noted that "in order for people to abide by the 'Stay home' calls, the state has to make the necessary economic arrangements, which is already a requirement of being a social state."

"The provincial pandemic boards need to inform the people by announcing data and current situation by province on a daily basis and ensure the people's participation in the struggle against the outbreak.

"Any failure to ensure the healthcare laborers' and people's participation in the struggle will lead to a failure to take the right and adequate measures and a further increase in the number of cases and fatalities." (RT/SD)