2 doctors, 1 medical student committed suicide, AKP's health policy censured

The average number of patients examined by a doctor annually had been 1,200 before 2002, the rise of Justice and Development Party to power. The number exceeded 5,700 in 2015
Tuesday, 07 November 2017 07:12

Turkey has witnessed the suicides of three young medical staff recently. 

After the suicides of Dr. Engin Karakuş in Batman and Dr. Ece Ceyda Güdemek in Adana, medical student Yağmur Çavuşoğlu too committed suicide in İstanbul.

Ece Ceyda Güdemek, a 28-year-old doctor working at a hospital in the southern city of Adana, committed suicide. Güdemek was working 36-hour shifts with a 12-hour break. Father Güdemek said that her daughter had very heavy working conditions and she was complaining about mobbing, professors mocking assistants so much that they hesitate to ask questions. The doctor left a suicide note saying, "People will change after reading this note. They will take responsibility and work for the good of others".

On the same day, 39-year-old surgeon Engin Karakuş committed suicide at his home in the eastern city of Batman. Karakuş left a suicide note saying, "I'm tired of these headaches". He was married with a child, and her pregnant wife was working as a family practitioner in western city İzmir.

Yağmur Çavuşoğlu had a status update on social media on October 13th saying, "I have an exam, I'm sleepless and not ready, but I started the day so well".

These suicides have prompted some public discussion over the working conditions of doctors. 

İlker Belek, MD and SoL columnist, summarised the alarming condition of doctors in Turkey in response to the question: "Why would a doctor commit suicide?"

"An assistant doctor usually works more than 100 hours in a week. The average number of patients examined by a doctor annually was 1200 before the Justice and Development Party. This number exceeded 5700 in 2015. The OECD average is about 2000. Specialist physicians in public hospitals have 6 minutes to finish the examination of patients. Otherwise, it is not possible to finish the long queues of patients. As a result, they get exposed to violence from patients or their relatives."

Belek reminds that medical doctors are more vulnerable to suicidal tendencies than others anywhere in the world due to the unique features of the occupation. Dealing with people in pain is a constant source of depression. The attempt to heal the patient is itself something that makes the doctor sick.

"However, these tendencies are aggravated with the privatisation of health services everywhere. This process started in Turkey in the 1980s under the name of transformation in health. From the point of view of the patients, this meant paying a fee for the health services and loss of the right to free healthcare. At the same time, healthcare reform subordinated the service workers to the market"

Belek said that after the closure of private clinics with the "full day" act, private hospitals filled the gap for half of the doctors had owned a private clinic at the time in Turkey.  

"Suddenly, doctors became wage workers instead of self-employers. 30 percent of our 150 thousand doctors are in this position now. The rest are the 'slaves' of the public hospitals. This is the sociological process called proletarianisation," highlighted Belek.

"Doctors haven’t still been able to recover from the identity erosion that came with proletarianisation. This is one of the main reasons behind their occupational burnout and suicidal tendencies.

Of course, the same process led to increasing world load and brought the performance system which aims to convince doctors to accept the new workload. That is what Marx used to call a 'sweatshop'" Belek pointed out. 

The burnout is more common among young doctors and assistants in Turkey. Belek said that young doctors had a lower feeling of success and higher hope to change their occupation at the first opportunity. 

"Depression and burnout are more common among doctors with higher world load and longer weekly working hours. There are publications reporting the incidence of depression as 37-64 percent among the research assistants. One-third of the medical students in the last year of the school say that they would never choose the medical school if they had another chance. In other words, they are already burnt out.

The problem is structural, and to a significant degree related to privatisation, Belek argues. We should lower the workload, shorten the working hours, in other words create a proper environment for doctors to do their job, pay the worth of their work and stop the propaganda blaming healthcare workers for the problems in our healthcare system. These can’t be achieved in a capitalist system. Therefore, we must define the struggle for the rights of healthcare workers within the struggle for socialism," he said.