‘At least 497 health workers died of COVID-19 in Turkey’

* Credit: Anadolu Agency (AA) - File

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The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) released its 18th weekly pandemic bulletin today (November 10). This week's theme was the "Deaths of Healthcare Workers During the Pandemic," which was presented by Dr. Halis Yerlikaya, a member of the TTB Central Council.

Referring to the studies conducted during the pandemic, Yerlikaya noted that nearly 10 percent of COVID-19 patients were healthcare workers.

According to the statement released by the World Health Organization (WHO) on October 20, 2021, Halis Yerlikaya said, "It is estimated that 80 thousand to 180 thousand healthcare workers lost their lives due to COVID-19 in the period from January 2020 to May 2021 and that an average of 115 thousand 500 deaths occured due to COVID-19."

Stressing that "Turkey is one of the countries with the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths," Yerlikaya noted, "According to the official data, the number of daily cases has not dropped below 20 thousand and that of deaths has not dropped below 150 for months."

"Though over 5 thousand people died of COVID-19 every month for three months, there has been no move in sight to speed up the vaccination or to take measures to prevent transmission," he underlined.

Halis Yerlikaya raised concerns that "it is with their lives that healthcare workers paid and are still paying the price for the government's deficient, wrong and inconsistent practices that are not based on scientific information, far from transparency and do not consider the local dynamics."

'Also because of working conditions, poverty'

According to the data compiled by the TTB's local medical chambers and via the labor-occupational organizations, the first COVID-19 death of a healthcare worker occured in Turkey on March 17, 2020.

Accordingly, from March 17, 2020 to November 9, 2021, mostly during the first period of the pandemic, at least 497 healthcare workers and 461 active healthcare workers lost their lives due to COVID-19.

At this point, Yerlikaya raised concerns that "during the pandemic, healthcare workers lost their colleagues not solely because of COVID-19, but also as a result of suicides and occupational homicides that were caused by poor working conditions and impoverishment."

Referring to the TTB data, Yerlikaya said, "35.2 percent of the COVID-19 deaths were among physicians while 13 percent were among pharmacists and 6.7 percent were among nurses and midwives."

While 85.6 percent of the 460 active healthcare workers who died of COVID-19 were men, this rate was 96.9 percent among physicians. Of the 32 deceased nurses and midwives, 87.1 percent were women. 28 percent of the deceased under the age of 50 were also women.

'No adequate measures taken, no lessons learnt'

When the COVID-19 deaths among physicians are considered by their sectors, the number of deaths from December 2020 to May 2021 was markedly higher in the private sector than the public sector.

Also, 19 family physicians and 21 workplace physicians lost their lives in Turkey due to COVID-19. Of the deceased healthcare workers, 33.3 percent of the ones aged 34 and younger and 41.7 percent of the ones aged 35-49 were workers working in precarious conditions.

Commenting on these findings, Dr. Halis Yerlikaya said:

"That over 90 percent of the healthcare workers' deaths occurred from June 2020 to November 2021 shows that adequate measures or lessons were not taken. If the causes of the deaths in the first three months of the pandemic had been sufficiently examined and steps had been taken accordingly, a significant part of the deaths could have been prevented.

"In order to prevent further deaths, creating a workplace arranged publicly and scientifically is a great need." (RT/SD)