Turkey’s ruling AKP to turn healthcare into tourism

​Turkey’s Parliament passes new bag bill, one of the most widely-discussed articles of which is on paid military service, but another crucial regulation is on turning healthcare into a matter of ‘tourism’, which will both ‘deepen the exploitation and increase the workload’, expert says
Tuesday, 07 August 2018 01:34

The bag bill that includes the regulations about the widely-expected paid military service was passed and announced on Turkey’s Official Gazette, and it was revealed to involve much more than the paid military service issue – moves for “encouraging” health tourism, for instance.

The regulation, passed with the alibi to “encourage health tourism”, allows specialised medical doctors to work with patients brought from abroad to hospitals accredited by Turkey’s Health Ministry, and also projects that the medical “personnel” are paid up to 50% of the payment charged for the healthcare services.

It is thought that the regulation aims to fill in the gap that will form as a result of the city hospitals, for which the government guaranteed patients.

Prof Dr Sinan Adıyaman, Director of the Central Council of the Turkish Medical Association, states that almost everything about the regulation is unclear, and asks: “How will the employment issues be handled when a doctor has to work both at a training hospital and a city hospital? … Everything is left for the arbitrariness of the Health Ministry.”

On the other hand, Gönül Erden, Chairperson of the Health and Social Services Workers’ Union, notes that “even using the words ‘health’ and ‘tourism’ in the same sentence is wrong”, and emphasises that such a practice would deepen the exploitation of labour as well as increasing the workload. “Giving MDs 50% of the charges for his labour means forcing them to work precariously.”

Health tourism is on the rise in the whole capitalist world, where healthcare has ceased to be a human right and begun to be treated as a paid service. A capitalist country, Turkey is not free of these events, naturally.

The bag bill also includes the foundation of an institution named Uluslararası Sağlık Hizmetleri AŞ (International Healthcare Services, Inc. - USHAŞ), which is a successor of the “Health Tourism Unit” formed inside Turkey’s Health Ministry in 2010. Turkey’s ruling AKP administration has been gradually privatising the healthcare system, while also paving the way for turning healthcare into a matter of income.