Doctors seek cure for violence
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Şafak Timur
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Kasım 22, 2008 00:00
Along with the increasing violence in the country in general, Tte health policies and current situation in the health system provokes violence against doctors, who point out that authorities and their policies sometimes make doctors a target. In 2005, a doctor from Istanbul was shot dead in the parking lot of the hospital he worked.
Similar to an ordinary automatic message when you call a bank, telling you to "press nine for English," Istanbul's Chamber of Doctors, or İTO, welcomes incoming calls with the recorded message: "If you are a doctor and you have been subjected to violence, please press nine."
If a doctor pressed nine after a patient or a patient’s relative assaulted him, a gentle employee of the chamber would answer the phone and learn about the details of the incident and become eligible to give legal support to the colleague.
This is not an emergency line. "We are not there to intervene immediately to the assault that takes place. We just try to give legal support about the incident," said Doctor Ayşegül Bilen, a member of İTO, providing information about the line.
İTO is also going to organize a workshop in early 2009 to analyze the reasons behind the increasing attacks and to find solutions, which can be regarded as a sign - together with the introduction of the special telephone line - of the urgency of the situation.
Health policies provoke violence
The health policies and the current situation in the health system provokes violence from patients and their relatives, along with the increasing amount of violence in our social atmosphere, doctors generally point out as the reasons behind the increasing aggression they have witnessed.
"Authorities told patients that they would not wait in queues any more in hospitals, which is far from the reality. When they wait in line when they come to the hospital, that’s when problems erupt" said Bilen.
Venhar Onat, a 28-year-old doctor who started her compulsory duty in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa six weeks ago, was beaten last week by a patient, who was said to be unwilling to wait in line.
"I postponed my wedding and came here to serve. Is this the reward I deserve?" Onat said after the attack, according to newspaper reports.
"The general tension in society has a role to play too, but the health policies and the discourse at the Health Ministry makes the doctors a target," said Şahin Aksu, the head of the Şanlıurfa Chamber of Doctors. "The ministry and the government say the patients will not wait in queues, but that doctor [Onat] looks after 100 patients each day," he said. Along with Onat, another female doctor in Şanlıurfa was beaten a few weeks ago for the same reason.
Assaults against doctors are not always "limited" to "simple" scuffles. The husband of a patient shot Dr. Necati Yenice in the garden of a hospital in the center of Istanbul, because he thought Yenice was responsible for his wife’s death. The husband committed suicide after the attack. Yenice survived his extremely serious injuries by the efforts of the team at his own hospital in Okmeydanı. Göksel Kalaycı, the head of chest surgery at Istanbul University Medical School, was shot to death in 2005 by a relative of a patient who died following treatment.
Hospitals are 16 times more risky for assaults than other work places because of the nature of the profession, said Burhanettin Kaya, a member of the managing board of the Turkish Psychiatry Association. Emergency rooms appear to be the places where these kinds of incidents take place most, Kaya said.
Security problems also negatively affect the situation, according to Kaya. "Private security guards do not know the working system of the hospitals. They work as a cheap labor force and they just start to carry guns after 15 days of training. Sometimes their aggressive attitudes create problems too. They should sometimes provide security by calming down the patients or relatives," he said.
Patients’ rights, doctors’ rights
Patients’ rights were on the agenda lately but they have gone beyond realistic limits, to the point that the rights of doctors are being ignored, according to Kaya. "Doctors have rights as well. They work for 13 or 14 hours, they are on duty at night and are not always paid for this. The interns even work around the clock," he said. "Patients’ rights and doctors’ rights cannot be separated. A doctor and a patient cannot be set apart," said Bilen.
If a doctor pressed nine after a patient or a patient’s relative assaulted him, a gentle employee of the chamber would answer the phone and learn about the details of the incident and become eligible to give legal support to the colleague.
This is not an emergency line. "We are not there to intervene immediately to the assault that takes place. We just try to give legal support about the incident," said Doctor Ayşegül Bilen, a member of İTO, providing information about the line.
İTO is also going to organize a workshop in early 2009 to analyze the reasons behind the increasing attacks and to find solutions, which can be regarded as a sign - together with the introduction of the special telephone line - of the urgency of the situation.
Health policies provoke violence
The health policies and the current situation in the health system provokes violence from patients and their relatives, along with the increasing amount of violence in our social atmosphere, doctors generally point out as the reasons behind the increasing aggression they have witnessed.
"Authorities told patients that they would not wait in queues any more in hospitals, which is far from the reality. When they wait in line when they come to the hospital, that’s when problems erupt" said Bilen.
Venhar Onat, a 28-year-old doctor who started her compulsory duty in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa six weeks ago, was beaten last week by a patient, who was said to be unwilling to wait in line.
"I postponed my wedding and came here to serve. Is this the reward I deserve?" Onat said after the attack, according to newspaper reports.
"The general tension in society has a role to play too, but the health policies and the discourse at the Health Ministry makes the doctors a target," said Şahin Aksu, the head of the Şanlıurfa Chamber of Doctors. "The ministry and the government say the patients will not wait in queues, but that doctor [Onat] looks after 100 patients each day," he said. Along with Onat, another female doctor in Şanlıurfa was beaten a few weeks ago for the same reason.
Assaults against doctors are not always "limited" to "simple" scuffles. The husband of a patient shot Dr. Necati Yenice in the garden of a hospital in the center of Istanbul, because he thought Yenice was responsible for his wife’s death. The husband committed suicide after the attack. Yenice survived his extremely serious injuries by the efforts of the team at his own hospital in Okmeydanı. Göksel Kalaycı, the head of chest surgery at Istanbul University Medical School, was shot to death in 2005 by a relative of a patient who died following treatment.
Hospitals are 16 times more risky for assaults than other work places because of the nature of the profession, said Burhanettin Kaya, a member of the managing board of the Turkish Psychiatry Association. Emergency rooms appear to be the places where these kinds of incidents take place most, Kaya said.
Security problems also negatively affect the situation, according to Kaya. "Private security guards do not know the working system of the hospitals. They work as a cheap labor force and they just start to carry guns after 15 days of training. Sometimes their aggressive attitudes create problems too. They should sometimes provide security by calming down the patients or relatives," he said.
Patients’ rights, doctors’ rights
Patients’ rights were on the agenda lately but they have gone beyond realistic limits, to the point that the rights of doctors are being ignored, according to Kaya. "Doctors have rights as well. They work for 13 or 14 hours, they are on duty at night and are not always paid for this. The interns even work around the clock," he said. "Patients’ rights and doctors’ rights cannot be separated. A doctor and a patient cannot be set apart," said Bilen.