Üsküdar Üniversitesi Founding Rector, Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan made significant evaluations under the title ‘Expectations and Solution Proposals in International Health Services’ at the İstanbul Üniversitesi-Cerrahpaşa Leaders Summit with the theme of ‘Health’. At the meeting where health problems were thoroughly discussed, Tarhan described the biggest problem in the healthcare sector as a lack of trust and coordination. Tarhan's views were also published in the released journal.
Tarhan noted the following at the Summit he attended:
“I am a psychiatrist. I graduated from this institution, Cerrahpaşa. I want to say that truly excellent topics were discussed. I took quite a few notes. We will definitely benefit from the discussions here. In my opinion, the most important and priority issue lies in the answer to the question: what is the biggest problem in both health tourism and other health sectors? Firstly, as Professor Alper Cihan mentioned in the initial talks, it's trust. Currently, the most significant factor affecting health tourism and healthcare mobility in Turkey is the lack of trust, doctors not feeling comfortable, frequent job changes or going abroad, and not feeling secure about their future. This is an important risk. In studies on corporate loyalty, the first priority is for individuals to love their job and feel valued in it, the second is to feel secure about their future, and the third is the salary they receive. In short, the issue here is not "emotional." Good healthcare is provided by good doctors. A system that cannot retain doctors within itself leads to informal/unregistered healthcare services. Our "brand value," which is in a very good state in healthcare, gets damaged. The Ministry of Trade is not striving for Turkey's brand value in global competition.
The second important issue is the excessive lack of coordination within the bureaucracy in Ankara. It has become very difficult to produce solutions. Everything is referred upwards. Doctors going abroad is a loss of human capital. Doctors largely do not feel secure about their future in Turkey. During the Covid period, as Üsküdar Üniversitesi, we conducted a study on post-traumatic growth and the impact after trauma on approximately 6,800 people. We published this, and the book came out. Among them were over 800 healthcare professionals. Participants were from all over Turkey. 25 master's students conducted their studies in clinical psychology, and there, over 800 healthcare workers answered questions such as: are you most afraid of Covid, what else are you afraid of, what is most concerning due to Covid? They were concerned about violence in healthcare. Perhaps it is not dangerous for health tourism right now, but not ignoring violence in healthcare is important here. This is also one of the important reasons for doctors leaving. They do not feel safe. In summary, the health bureaucracy is not very successful in defending the rights of doctors and in inter-institutional coordination. For a simple matter, they say, 'go solve it in court.'”
