Minister Memişoğlu: We are renewing private hospital regulations

Meeting with health reporters from media organizations at the Ministry, Minister of Health Kemal Memişoğlu provided information about planned initiatives and made assessments regarding the current agenda.

Sharing his personal email address and phone number with health reporters before the meeting, Minister Memişoğlu stated that the role undertaken by media members in increasing the society's health literacy rate is very important, adding, “We accept you as healthcare professionals.

We see health reporters as a member of the health army, and in fact, the entire society learns about health literacy, the social development of health, and at the same time, information about health in this regard through you. Your efforts are immense. I thank you all because you are the ones in the field. The news you produce affects many people.

As such, you ensure both the development of public health and our further development. First of all, I thank you. We are all people who serve this nation and society. Our goal is to build a better health system and create a better country.

That is why we are doing our best. When I was at the Istanbul Provincial Health Directorate, we were always open to communication with our health reporter friends. We would like to establish the same open and transparent communication at the Ministry as much as we can in this regard.

Unfortunately, sometimes there is disinformation and wrong perceptions. Establishing a good path for communication and news reporting is definitely valuable to us. You are valuable to us. We see you as health ambassadors in the media. That is why we always want to be in communication on every issue,” he said.

"FIRST THE HUMAN, THE WELL-BEING OF THE HUMAN"

Minister Memişoğlu said the following:

“When people, including those in Turkey, are asked, ‘What is the most essential thing for happiness?’, the first parameter is health. You know, more than 65-70 percent of people define health as the essential thing in their lives. Therefore, we must act with the awareness that health is this source of happiness. We are related to human life. We do not look at a person's color, gender, or opinion while providing health services; we serve everyone equally because they are human. Our approach is: We say first the human, the well-being of the human, we say the well-being of society, we say the well-being of civilization, and we say the well-being of the world. Today, unfortunately, we live in a world where a civilization of evil, where evil prevails, where people slaughter each other, and where 45 thousand people die in live broadcasts. As the side of good, we think that we need to work harder to fix this, to act together, and that the good side needs to act together. That is why we are working on how we can do better regarding health as well. We will do better together.”

"WE NEED TO EXPLAIN THE HARMS OF THESE TO SOCIETY"

Minister Memişoğlu stated that his priority is preventive medicine and that this is the primary care level. Stating that they have to create a management system for people to take care of themselves, look after their bodies, and stay healthy before they get sick and lose their health, Minister Memişoğlu said, “In other words, we need to work as the Ministry of Health before health is lost in this regard. We always say we are not a ministry of disease. If we are a ministry of health, we must first teach people preventive medicine and a preventive health culture. The important health workers here are you. Because you are the ones who will produce news that will increase the society's health literacy and raise their awareness. While we produce these or support them, we cannot increase the society's health literacy rate or teach them that they need to take care of themselves regarding health without your help. Therefore, this responsibility is not only ours, but also yours, because when we look at it today, we see that Turkey's biggest problems are obesity and weight, and we see that it is addiction. This is not just smoking or substance addiction. We know that one of the most important addictions today is digital addiction,” he expressed.

"SMOKING IS A SUBSTANCE THAT AFFECTS ALL KINDS OF DISEASES"

Pointing out that the smoking rate in Turkey is very high, Minister Memişoğlu said, "Smoking is a substance that affects all kinds of diseases from lung cancer to COPD. For this reason, we need to explain the harms of these to society.”

"RENEWABLE POPULATION SHOULD NOT DECREASE"

Touching on the fertility rate, Memişoğlu said, “Besides this, we talk about the fertility rate, society sometimes criticizes, saying ‘Why are you interfering with us', but when you look at it, it cannot be without children. Siblings are also important in the family. People develop with siblings. You share, you struggle, you support each other. However, we do not look at this only from the sibling side. Also, Turkey's population, which we call renewable, should not decrease. A population growth rate of 1.5 means that this population is decreasing, let alone aging, it is decreasing. We need to raise awareness in society about this. We have prepared a Natural Birth Action Plan, as you know. But we need to explain this to society. From the physician to the patient, from the pregnant woman to the whole family, we need to explain together that the normal way is birth, and the other is surgery. We desire that such policies, which we call preventive, that will protect health without getting sick, be supported by you and that many messages be given to society on this issue,” he explained.

"WE TRUST FAMILY PHYSICIANS"

Stating that they will support family medicine, Minister Memişoğlu said, “Because family medicine is our health ambassador and the door where we provide health services that society will first apply to and is closest to them. Therefore, we made a change in the legislation and regulation regarding family medicine. In addition to this, our goal in 2025 is to build approximately one thousand new Family Health Centers and create an infrastructure that will provide better service to them with a corporate identity. We also have a Healthy Life Center goal; we want to build over 100 in 2025. Preventive medicine is the most important element of primary health care. There can sometimes be disinformation and wrong perceptions regarding the legislation. Here, we say this: by reducing the population registered to a family physician to 3,500, we want the physician to follow all health-related parameters of the people registered to them, especially groups such as the elderly, diabetics, and hypertension patients. Let there be no misunderstanding, we are not cutting the salaries of family physicians. We are trying to give more incentives to family physicians based on the health of their own population. We want them to take an active role in ensuring that their own population does not get sick. For this reason, we compare the family physician with themselves. If their population, the population they are responsible for, is healthier than the previous period, we see this as the success of the family physician because we see that if the people in the region they are responsible for take care of themselves and do not get sick, the person who will ensure this is the family physician, and we know that the person has their own responsibility. Therefore, we trust family physicians in this regard, and we know that their incomes will also increase. We also want the difference between those who work and those who do not to be clear. That is why we will give incentives, we will give additions, we will give fees to family physicians. We do not desire disinformation on this issue,” he said.

"WE WILL SOLVE THE PROBLEMS REGARDING APPOINTMENTS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE"

Minister Memişoğlu said, “We know that there are problems in some branches regarding appointments, we will solve these as soon as possible. Today, we published the new appointment and relocation regulation (Regulation on Amendments to the Ministry of Health Appointment and Relocation Regulation). As you know, in 2002, there was a seven-fold difference between the most developed region and the undeveloped region in the distribution of physicians in Turkey. Our developed regions had seven times more health personnel. We have now reduced this difference to 2.5 times. We published such a regulation to reduce this even further,” he stated.

"WE ARE IN THE PHASE OF RESTRUCTURING OUR HEALTH SERVICES"

Stating that they are doing a complete check-up of the Ministry of Health services, Minister Memişoğlu said, “In other words, we are in the phase of restructuring our inspection procedures and our health services. We have established a scientific commission for inspection and evaluation regarding newborns, as you know. We will do this in all branches: emergency, adult intensive care, oncology, etc. We are working on how to make the operation more effective by checking our service areas,” he said.

"WE WANT TO PRODUCE BOTH ITS SCIENCE AND ITS KNOWLEDGE"

Stating that they aim to grow health services by restructuring the International Health Services Inc. (USHAŞ) and making it more effective, especially to be more active in health tourism, Memişoğlu said, “We think that the public side of health services needs to develop a little more in this regard. Besides preventive and primary health services, the thing I care about the most, and we want your support on this because there is a very long way we need to cover, there are things we need to do, we do not just want to be a country that provides health services and does health services well, we want to produce both the science and the knowledge of health while providing health services,” he said.

"OUR HEALTH SERVICES HAVE DEVELOPED INCREDIBLY"

“Turkey's health workers, especially the physician group, are truly seen as the pride of the world,” said Memişoğlu, adding, “This should also be known by society. We all live in this country. Health services have developed incredibly in the last 20 years under the leadership of our President, and we saw it in Covid-19 in the world, and we saw it in the earthquake that you live in a country where health services are a role model for the world. This is done by health workers and the physician group, our health system. I want those very exceptional people who have not received their share of humanity, and who are also in prison after being caught, not to eat the rights of our one and a half million health workers,” he expressed.

INFANT MORTALITY RATES

Pointing out that infant mortality has been reduced from 35 per thousand live births to 7.1 for Istanbul, and to 9.2 for Turkey, Minister Memişoğlu said, “We are talking about a health system and health workers that have increased the survival chance of our premature babies born under 37 weeks to over 95 percent. We are talking about a health system and health workers that have increased life expectancy to 78 years. We must not allow this to be disparaged or damaged by a few unfortunate people. The fault and cruelty of a few people should not cast suspicion on such great services, services and workers that are better than Europe and the world. You are the ones who will achieve this, we are, people with responsibility,” he said.

“I am touring the field, I have been to 28 provinces in 4 months,” said Minister Memişoğlu, “We listened to the problems of our friends in the field, our employees in the health system, including universities and the private sector, held meetings, and saw them on-site. In general, we received the demands of our friends because, in the end, we are here for them too. We are here to provide services with them, to support them, to work with them, and we are trying to solve the problems more effectively by identifying them on-site,” he explained.

Minister Memişoğlu made the following statements:

“I want you to follow this especially and motivate our scientists because we need to produce. For us to produce, we need to bring scientists, finance, and the state together. Look, we will not just do science, we need to produce science. We need to produce scientific materials, we need to produce medicine. That is why we are designing TÜSEB to create this ecosystem in this regard. We want producing health to be the most important part of the health ecosystem in the future, 10 years, 20 years from now. We are also restructuring USHAŞ. These two issues are important to us. Just as we say primary health and preventive health, we need to make Turkey a producer of producing health and health technology and science at least as much as that.”

"THERE WILL BE NO PROBLEM IN THIS REGARD"

Regarding the traditional and complementary medicine training for family physicians, Minister of Health Memişoğlu said, “There needs to be secondary legislation on this issue. We will issue the secondary legislation. We will also increase the training with the secondary legislation. There will be no problem in this regard. We are approaching with a logic that favors the integrated work of traditional medicine and current medicine. We are trying to make every practice that will be beneficial to human health possible. We are issuing such legislation for family physicians to be more effective in this regard. The secondary legislation for this will also be issued after the law. We will look at how it will work, what kind of system will be established.”

"THE FAMILY MEDICINE SYSTEM WILL BECOME MORE EFFECTIVE"

Stating that they are trying to make primary health services and primary care health services a priority with the regulations and laws that will be issued, Memişoğlu said, “I understand the concerns of our family physicians. We think that we will be in much better places after 5-6 months. After the implementation, we will also see the beneficial and problematic aspects of the implementation. Our prediction is that these practices will make the family medicine system more effective and put it at the center of the system. We can also go for revisions in a good direction by making the necessary follow-ups after the implementation,” he stated.

Responding to the disinformation such as ‘We cannot prescribe medicine', Memişoğlu said, “If the amount of medicine prescribed to their own patient group within a period is the same as or less than the amount of medicine prescribed in the previous period, we give incentives to the family physician. If the number of hospital visits of the registered population is the same as or less than the previous period, this means that the family physician has made that population healthier. At this point, we give incentives and additional payments. Moreover, we have doubled this incentive. We give the family physician the health responsibility of their own population. Family physicians who keep their population healthy have succeeded. We do not interfere with any physician's treatment process and do not prevent them from prescribing medicine. I think the intention of saying ‘We cannot prescribe medicine, the Ministry banned it' is not pleasant,” he said.

"OUR WORK REGARDING PUBLIC HOSPITALS AND HEALTH TOURISM WILL CONTINUE"

Stating that they have been following Provincial Health Directors, District Health Directors, and chief physicians with certain parameters since October, Minister Memişoğlu said, “We are evaluating employee satisfaction, patient satisfaction, and application rates through an electronic system. We compare managers with the previous period and measure their success indices. They can also see these indices themselves. Our work regarding public hospitals and health tourism will continue. We will make some legislative changes,” he said.

Underlining that cesarean section is a surgical method and that they will continue to inform society about this, Memişoğlu said, “Many prominent issues such as socioeconomic reasons, the effects of urbanization, and the shrinking of the family affect the fertility rate. We are fighting this issue together with the Ministry of Family and Social Services and the Ministry of Labor and Social Security. According to the data announced by the World Health Organization, the primary cesarean rate can be in only one or two out of 10 births. However, our primary cesarean rate is in one out of every two births. Society perceives cesarean section as a way of birth,” he said.

Memişoğlu said that they are working to make midwives more active and to support the mother more during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.

"WE NEED TO CHANGE THE SOCIAL DEMAND FOR CESAREAN SECTION"

Announcing that there is a legislative study that will increase the effectiveness of midwives, Memişoğlu said, “The person who should prepare the mother for birth during this emotional period of the mother is the midwife. We also have a legislative study that will increase the effectiveness of midwives. It will be published this week or next week. We want midwives to be effective. We want midwives to prepare pregnant women for birth, especially in the last three months of pregnancy, at the stage where the feeling of motherhood begins to be experienced more intensely. We say that normal birth has important benefits not only for the mother but also for the baby. As Ministries, we are doing our best regarding the fertility rate. As you know, the number of leaves for mothers has been increased. Unpaid leaves were abolished and turned into paid leaves. Work on these continues. We must all strive together to explain to mothers and expectant mothers that birth is a physiological event. We also need to change the social demand for cesarean section. We need to explain to society that cesarean section is a surgery, not a way of birth. Medically, surgery may be required in one or two out of ten births. If many births take place by cesarean section in a physiological event where surgery is not required in eight of them, it means there is a problem in this area,” he stated.

"WE NEED TO CHANGE THE PREJUDICES ABOUT NORMAL BIRTH"

Stating that they have to use many parameters that will support normal birth holistically, Memişoğlu said, “We need to change the prejudices about normal birth by making evaluations on the scale of hospitals, physicians, expectant mothers, and society. The most emotional ones here are the mothers. If we prepare the mothers well, if we increase the mothers' courage regarding birth, I think these problems will be solved. We will work more on hospitals where the primary cesarean rate exceeds 20 percent,” he said.

"WE ARE COMPLETELY RENEWING THE PRIVATE HOSPITALS LEGISLATION"

Announcing that they will completely renew the private hospitals legislation, Memişoğlu said, “We see that there is a need for some changes in private hospitals in terms of legislation. Public hospitals, university hospitals, and private hospitals must all provide services at the same standard. They must treat in the same way with the same scientific study. There are very good examples in private hospitals, surgeries performed at a world-class level,” he said.

Stating that they do not make a distinction between private and public regarding cesarean rates, Minister Memişoğlu said, “In line with our examinations regarding primary cesarean rates, we will be more effective in 2025, and we will strive to encourage expectant mothers to have a normal birth. We also plan to introduce incentive elements for midwives,” he stated.

Stating that he also met with Turkish scientist Dr. Özlem Türeci at the Ministry, Minister Memişoğlu said, “We will support the scientist in this country. At the 10th Turkish Medical World Congress, I held a meeting with very successful scientists who have worked abroad. They will come here. I also tell foreign investors to come here and invest. Turkey is no longer a health market, Turkey is a partner in production in the field of health. We are working with TÜSEB. We will support everyone who is foreign and wants to invest in Turkey or who is Turkish and wants to invest abroad in the best way. We will support everyone who will produce science from science, who will produce in the field of health, and who will create added value. We will create a structure that can generate financial income by producing science from science. I am talking about producing science, not doing science. We will support everyone who says I will say a new word, I will produce something new, I found something new, I have a claim, in the best way at home and abroad,” he said.

"WE PHYSICIANS ARE VALUABLE AND SENSITIVE PEOPLE"

Stating that he is behind all physicians who take care of their patients, share their troubles, and empathize, Minister Memişoğlu said, “We physicians are valuable and sensitive people. We are going through a difficult process by putting in a lot of effort. Then we spend our whole lives 24 hours a day for the well-being of people, and we have a dedication to them. This profession is not just a materialistic profession; it also has a spiritual side, pleasure, and the necessity of developing the feeling of empathy. We have a structure that shares the troubles of others. We are actually doing art. I want our physicians to be valuable, and they also want to feel valuable. We will protect our physicians who practice good medicine. I will stand behind every physician who takes care of their patient and has a sense of dedication. I am saying this as a minister: We will stand behind physicians who work not to look at the patient in the second and third steps, but to treat and take ownership of the patient. We will practice medicine not to look at the patient, but to treat and take ownership. I am saying it very clearly. I am behind all our physicians who take care of their patients, share their troubles, and empathize. Physicians are very valuable. Medicine is a profession of emotion and dedication,” he said.

Minister of Health Kemal Memişoğlu also stated that a pilot application is being carried out in three provinces regarding family dentistry, and that work will be carried out to resolve problems in some branches such as ophthalmology and plastic surgery.

News Source: İHA