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A record number of 3,025 physicians applied for a certificate of good standing in advance of moving abroad in 2023, statistics from the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) show.
A statement from the TTB on X said the number of doctors who applied to the TTB for a certificate of good standing in advance of moving overseas has increased by a factor of 60 over the past 11 years, which it said proves the failure of government policies in the healthcare sector.
In 2012 only 59 doctors had applied to the TTB for a certificate of good standing before they left Turkey.
TTB'ye "İyi Hal Belgesi" başvuru sayısı;
📌 Aralık ayında 240,
📌 2023 yılında 3025 oldu.İyi Hal Belgesi başvuru sayısının 11 yılda 60 kat artarak yıllık 3 bini aşması, hem Sağlık Bakanı'nın açıkladığı verilerin doğru olmadığını hem de "Beyaz Reform"un herhangi bir çözüm… pic.twitter.com/XmQ9PGgpUQ
— Türk Tabipleri Birliği (@ttborgtr) December 29, 2023
More and more doctors are moving overseas due to poor working conditions and acts of violence in Turkey, which has the fewest number of doctors in Europe when the populations of the countries are taken into consideration, according to 2021 data from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
Medical professionals who envision their future in Europe, Canada, the US, the United Arab Emirates or Qatar include not only doctors working for state or university hospitals but also self-employed physicians.
The reasons for the doctors’ departures include the failure of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government to meet their demands for manageable workloads, increased security and better pay as well as incidents of physical violence against healthcare workers becoming a daily occurrence across the country.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan angered the medical community when he in March 2022 condemned an increasing number of Turkish doctors who were choosing to move to the private sector or go abroad for better job opportunities, saying they are free to go and that Turkey would find ways to make up for their loss.
After facing an angry reaction from the medical community, thousands of whose members took to the streets on the occasion of Medicine Day, marked every March 14 in Turkey, Erdoğan later praised the efforts of doctors, especially during the pandemic, and said, “Turkey is always in need of its doctors and is indebted to them.”
The doctors’ departures are a sad indictment of Erdoğan, who has burnished his own reputation by expanding universal health care over his 20 years in power. But the strains of the overhauls wrought by Erdoğan, in addition to those brought by the pandemic and increasing inflation, have undermined the very professionals on whom the health system depends.
There are frequent reports about long waiting periods for crucial surgeries due to the insufficient number of doctors in some hospitals.