Health Minister Dr. Fahrettin Koca went to Niğde to meet with medical school students and make a series of contacts.
After his visit to Governor of Niğde Mustafa Koç, Minister Koca, made a statement and underlined that they are trying to strengthen the health infrastructure, the conditions of the employees and the health service by traveling every inch of Türkiye.
Explaining that they have completed 30 health facility investments in Niğde since 2002, Dr. Koca emphasized that the construction of the 400-bed Niğde Training and Research Hospital continues rapidly.
Pointing out that Türkiye has made groundbreaking developments in many fields, especially health, in the last 20 years, Dr. Koca said, “Within the framework of the Century of Türkiye goal, we aim to make our country a global health base with the umbrella brand of Türkiye in health tourism. Our development momentum in the field of health has not only ensured our people's access to the highest quality health services, but also made us a global actor in health. While the health systems of many developed countries have been paralyzed in the last 3 years due to the pandemic, our health system has shown that success rises on solid foundations. Thanks to the white reform we have initiated, our system will be stronger. I believe that the results will be reflected to our citizens in a short time.”
Minister Koca spoke at the "City Meetings Towards 2023" program in Niğde.
In his speech, Minister Koca stated that he attaches great importance to the “Century of Türkiye” vision announced by President H.E. Erdoğan and said, “The Century ofTürkiye is the name of the period characterized with human and human values, and disallowing fanaticism. Therefore, it is a century in which Türkiye has a message to the world in all fields such as health, education and so on. It means contributing to the solutions of the problems of the global world.”
Fahrettin Koca met with medical students in Niğde
Speaking at the “Medicine Students Meeting” held at Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University, Dr. Koca stated that medical education lays the ground for a special worldview, a modesty and wisdom that comes from experience.
Pointing out that the health system started to form a spiral of problems over time, and the problems tended to grow with the increasing service demand after the pandemic, Dr. Koca continued as follows:
“We started to produce the necessary solution policies against this trend. The conditions of the pademic led both to the development of these policies and to the growth of the problems. First of all, due to the weight of the professional burden of our health workers, an actual service increase was made. We have made improvements regarding the retirement of doctors. We have made a legal regulation that provides additional payment in retirement depending on a coefficient.”
Penalties for violent crimes against healthcare workers increased
Saying, "The 'White Reform' that has been put into practice has included actual violence in health among the catalog crimes," Dr. Koca added that the threat of lawsuits against healthcare workers has been blocked.
Health Minister Dr. Fahrettin Koca stated that with the new regulation, all health personnel received additional payment, and an additional payment model based on rewarding and encouraging healthcare workers has been adopted.
“It will now be a privilege to be a doctor in the public sector”
Pointing out that Covid-19 has revealed the deficits of health systems, especially in terms of healthcare professionals all over the world, Minister Koca concluded his words as follows:
“A phenomenon called migration of doctors came to the fore. Thanks to the White Reform, this psychology is now abandoned. When we opened a request for public employment, more than 7,000 doctors reported their request to return to the public. We are currently appointing approximately 6 thousand doctors in this way. It will now be a privilege to be a doctor in the public health facilities.”
The program ended after the question and answer session.