Family physicians started another work stoppage against the "Regulation on the Amendment of the Family Medicine Contract and Payment Regulation" published on 30 October 2024. Family physicians stopped work in all cities of Turkey and Kurdistan. The action of family physicians will continue until 10 january. In this context, statements were made, Riha (Urfa), Adana, Antalya, Mersin, Hatay, İzmir, Denizli, Amed (Diyarbakır) and Dersîm (Tunceli).

 

The main demands of family physicians are as follows:

 

"* As physicians, midwives, nurses and health workers working in family health centers, we want to solve the health problems of the public with our professional competencies and experience without the pressure of money, performance and punishment.

 

* We want to be able to allocate at least 10 minutes to each patient for a qualified health service instead of performing procedures on 100 patients a day with a heavy workload, allocating only 3 minutes to each patient. We demand sufficient time and opportunity for examination, follow-up, treatment, vaccination, follow-up, screening and information of our patients.

 

* We want our patients to be valued as human beings, not as customers, points and coefficients.

 

* Restricting the prescribing of drugs such as painkillers, stomach protectors and antibiotics that should be prescribed to our patients for treatment is an intervention in the professional independence of physicians as well as taking away the right to treatment of our patients. We do not accept this practice.

 

* The charge for reports in family health centres means the end of free primary care services. As physicians, midwives, nurses and health workers working in family health centres, we know very well that trade in health brings death as we have seen in the newborn scandal and we want to provide free, qualified and accessible health care to our patients.

 

* We do not accept that the right to treatment of patients with more than 7 hospital admissions per year is controlled through us and restricted with warnings and salary deductions. We do not want our wages to be tied to criteria that we cannot intervene, such as hospital admissions or the number of people who have not applied to ASM in the last 6 months.

 

* We do not want unscientific wrong practices that have no benefit to our patients, we want to provide scientific, qualified health service.

 

* We want the security of our patients' personal data to be protected in accordance with the right to patient privacy. We want chronic disease follow-ups to be carried out with the currently used family medicine information systems by allocating sufficient examination time for the real benefit of patients.

 

* We want the Regulation on Family Medicine, which is being tried to be solved with daily policies that have turned into a ball of problems, to be rearranged in consultation with the undersigned health labour and professional organisations and by giving our personal rights."