‘Only in 2020, Turkey saw 12 thousand incidents of violence in healthcare'

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The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) and medical chambers have been protesting for five weeks with the slogan, "Our labor, our word".

In their fifth protest on Friday (November 19), physicians commemorated Dr. Aynur Dağdemir, who was killed in an act of violence in healthcare. The first commemoration was held at her grave in Samsun.

Following the commemoration ceremony at the deceased physician's grave, a statement for the press was made in front of Dr. Kamil Furtun Hospital with the participation of TTB Central Council member Dr. Meltem Günbeği, Samsun Medical Chamber executives and Dağdemir's family.

In addition to the commemoration and press statement in Samsun, physicians also demanded a "law against violence in healthcare" by protesting in the provinces of İstanbul, Ankara, Antalya, Antep, Batman, Bursa, Balıkesir, Diyarbakır, İzmir, Kocaeli and Muğla.

The physicians made the following statement in brief:

"Doctor Aynur Dağdemir was killed by a man who came to the private hospital where she was working with a bread knife six years ago today.

"We lost Dr. Edip Kürklü, Dr. Edip Kalaycıoğlu, Dr. Ersin Arslan, Dr. Kamil Furtun, Dr. Hüseyin Ağır, Dr. Fikret Hacıosman as a result of the violence that they were subjected to in their workplaces.

"Besides our losses, our colleagues are attacked in their workplaces with knives, guns, sticks, reaping hooks, stones; their clinics are set on fire and every one of us is subjected to verbal violence every day.

'84 percent of violence by patients' relatives'

"Only in 2020, nearly 12 thousand incidents of violence took place in healthcare where a white code was given. According to our survey, 84 percent of physicians indicated that they were subjected to the verbal and physical violence of patients or their relatives before.

"No measures have been taken to protect us from violence in our workplaces despite all these while the law on violence in healthcare has done no good other than trying to manage the perceptions.

'Violence against women on the increase'

"Violence in healthcare cannot be considered separately from the general climate of violence and the politicians' policies producing violence. Especially in the last incidents, we have been witnessing consecutive attacks by male patients against women healthcare workers. We naturally know that these are not coincidences and are related to gender inequality.

"On the one hand, we defend the İstanbul Convention to say stop to violence against women; on the other hand; we struggle to ensure that effective and deterring laws will be enacted so that violence against physicians and healthcare workers can come to an end.

"We don't want to be in a healthcare system which breeds violence or in insecure workplaces. We cannot tolerate the loss of another colleague."

Concluding the statement, the TTB and medical chambers also listed their recommendations within this context. (RT/SD)