Health Minister Dr. Fahrettin Koca met with Health Directors of 81 Provinces in Ankara to discuss details of the “White Reform”, and listen opinions of the Provincial Health Director. “Health transformation program launched in the early 2000s was a huge stride to facilitate access of the people to the health services. The project also aimed to improve working conditions of the healthcare professionals, which yielded to the expected results to a certain extent. However, the world has changed, so have the working conditions. It is not possible to maintain a static system while everything else is changing. An upgrade is essential, particularly considering the acts of violence towards the healthcare professionals. Unjust malpractice cases also aggravated the situation, putting medical doctors under heavy financial burdens. Furthermore, personal rights and the performance system could not meet the expectations, which all rendered the amendment inevitable. “White Reform” is the result of all these considerations. And it is not an ordinary term or slogan; the white represents our training, our sweat and doctor coat. And the reform is the process of reconstruction.” said Minister in his speech. According to statements of Dr. Koca, the “White Reform” has three pillars the first of which is the medical doctors and healthcare professionals. Improvement of this pillar is built upon three critical moves that are the laws on the acts of violence in health and malpractice, and regulation of personal rights and the incentive system. These have already produced concrete results. The second pillar is accessible, affordable, effective and reliable health service. It is important to make sure that every citizen visiting the hospitals can benefit from the best services in the most affordable manner and in the shortest possible time. The third pillar is to ensure sustainability of the first two pillars. It is not possible to accomplish anything if it is not permanent and sustainable. Underlining that the “White Reform” could only be achieved with the support of provincial health directors, Dr. Koca added “Your timely feedback on positive and negative reactions is of vital importance… You are like the commanders of the health army, and you need to be aware on your responsibilities. It is not possible to meet the expectations without your active support. Therefore, you need to act with the highest determination and dynamism.”
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