Preparations for radical changes in the family medicine system

Radical changes are on the agenda for the family medicine system in Turkey, which covers 56 thousand family physicians and family health workers across approximately 28 thousand family health units. According to a report by Türkiye Gazetesi, the new draft law prepared by the Ministry of Health aims to address many issues that have long been raised by healthcare workers.

Under the current practice, contracts for family physicians and family health workers were largely managed by the central administration. However, the new draft proposes transferring the responsibility for these processes to governorates and provincial health directorates. This is intended to accelerate contract signing processes and ensure they are carried out more effectively according to local conditions.

In the current system, there was no clear legal time limit for cases where a physician or family health worker failed to report to work without an excuse. The prepared draft plans to address this deficiency. Accordingly, it is stated that the contracts of healthcare workers who are absent from duty for more than 8 weeks will be automatically terminated.

News Source: 12punto