‘One out of every seven primary care physicians had COVID-19 in Turkey’

* Photo: Erçin Ertürk - Ankara / AA

Click to read the article in Turkish

The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) and the TTB Family Medicine Branch shared the results of its "Family Medicine Pandemic Survey January 2021" in an online press conference yesterday (January 28).

The conference was attended by Central Council Chair Prof. Şebnem Korur Fincancı, TTB Central Council members Dr. Kazım Doğan Eroğulları and Dr. Halis Yerlikaya, TTB Family Medicine Branch Chair Dr. Emrah Kırımlı, Branch Secretary Dr. Sibel Uyan and physicians from the Branch.

Dr. Şebnem Korur Fincancı underlined that with the start of mass COVID-19 vaccination across the country in mid-January, the importance of primary healthcare services was understood once again.

Average number of daily cases: 9,511

The findings of the "Family Medicine Pandemic Survey January 2021" were shared by Dr. Emrah Kırımlı.

As part of this study, the TTB talked to 997 primary care physicians, also known as family physicians in Turkey. Some highlights from the survey conducted in 69 of 81 provinces of Turkey were as follows:

* The average number of PCR+ patients per family physician dropped to 3.95 and that of traced patients to 8.18. Though the average number of daily cases declined, it was still as high as 9,511 a day.

Number of cases declined by one fourth

* 95 percent of family physicians noted that the rate of tracing cases and contacts by phone dropped by 95 percent. The number of cases declined by one fourth in almost all major cities of Turkey.

* The case number/contact patient ration dropped from 1,73 to 1/1 after a long time, which showed that there were problems with contact tracing.

Additional duties, but no additional pay

* While 70 percent of family physicians said that they also carried out tracing activities and did additional duties such as vaccination at schools, driving licence and military service examination and marriage reports, 20 percent noted that they did not receive any additional payment.

* The percentage of healthcare personnel who had COVID-19 was still 68 percent, as had been the case in December. One out of every seven family physicians had been infected with COVID-19 so far.

One out of 10 centers without physicians

* Only 15 percent of family physicians said that the cold chain was sustainable and the waiting rooms were suitable for vaccination.

* When it comes to the number of healthcare personnel, only nearly half of them said that it was adequate. One out of every four units do not have a midwife or nurse and one out of 10 units do not have a physician.

* The number of healthcare workers who said that they could vaccinate more than 20 people a day was only 27 percent at family health centers. The efforts to curb the infection risk, the arguments caused by the shortage of pneumonia vaccines and the violence targeting healthcare workers led to a decrease in vaccination. (AS/SD)

* Click here to read the full report (in Turkish)