Turkey Has Shown Its Strength in Health Sector

We saw that besides its powerful industry, our country is able to produce everything from medication to medical supplies and consumables within a short time

The pandemic process showed the importance of our powerful health system. The sector deserves the name “Turkish Un-Armed Forces” with its contributions. It showed its domestic production capacity by producing masks, ventilators, etc. (medical consumables and medication) in such a short time. The most important part of the process has been completed by minimizing the damage with the quick response of the public, the predictive and skilled approach of our President and the Minister of Health. The system and the sector need to stand even stronger in order to maintain this achievement, which would be among the top five in the world, in upcoming troubling periods and new attacks. Carrying a lot of weight during this period, the private health sector could not reduce its expenses as it is subject to the cost accounting and has been open 24 hours. So, the sector faces a possible financial crisis, as it has been deprived of $2.5 billion worth of health tourism.  We are sure that our state and nation will be there for us in our fight against this financial crisis, just as we have been for them in this crisis.

We Learned That Money Is Not Everything

Even with a strong system, money, and democracy; a country without an inclusive health system and a powerful private sector could not survive this crisis without major losses. We learned that money is not everything. We learned that it does not matter who owns the hospitals. What matters is not the direct service of the public.  Almost all countries that have successfully fought against this crisis have an inclusive insurance system.  Hospitals in this system, either private or public, serve all people. And they have comprehensive public health and primary care services. They have powerful private healthcare organisations.

• The system did not work either in England, which only has public hospitals

• or the USA, which only has private hospitals but does not have comprehensive insurances.

• Italy and Spain have old and weak private hospitals, and it did not work there either.

We clearly understood that health is also a strategic sector.

We saw that besides its powerful industry, our country is able to produce everything from medication to medical supplies and consumables within a short time. And, above all, our doctors, nurses, and technicians trained above the world standards who give their life, knowledge, skill and conscience, and our health army of 1 million and 50 thousand people are the real heroes of this period. We are still fighting against the virus, and now is the time to continue accomplishing great deeds without bragging.

Chairperson of Health Business Council    Op. Dr. Reşat Bahat