‘If Health Workers Get Sick, Public Cannot Recover’

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As one more physician has contracted new coronavirus (Covid-19) in Turkey as of today (March 19), the conditions of health workers and hospitals have once again become a burning issue on the agenda.

Since the day when the first case of coronavirus in Turkey was confirmed by Health Minister Fahrettin Koca on March 11, both medical organizations and healthcare workers themselves have been raising concerns over the lack of equipments and precautions at hospitals and reiterating their requests for the improvement of their conditions.

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Meanwhile, it has been announced that Internist Prof. Cemil Taşçıoğlu from İstanbul Çapa Faculty of Medicine has tested positive for the virus.

And, today, Pulmonologist Prof. Bülent Tutluoğlu has announced that he has also been diagnosed with coronavirus. Sharing a message on his social media account, Tutluoğlu has said,

"I have been in hospital since Monday due to a possible Covid pneumonia. Before I got sick, I saw 5-6 possible Covid cases a day. As far as I am informed by my colleagues, the number of cases has increased considerably. I hope we will continue the struggle where we left it when I recover."

Within this context, we have consulted with Turkish Medical Association (TTB) Chair Prof. Dr. Sinan Adıyaman about the conditions of health workers. "It is a war against the epidemic," Adıyaman has told us and added:

"And, at the very front of this war stand health workers, no matter whether they have an academic title or not or whether they are practicing physicians, professors, specialists, interns or nurses. And the doctors who have tested positive are a clear indication of that."

'Our fellow physicians in quarantine in several places'

Prof. Dr. Adıyaman has told bianet the following in brief:

"It is a very infectious virus. A person who has contracted the virus can transmit it to 625 people in a month.

"Our fellow physicians are being quarantined in several places now. On the other side, several other health workers have been - probably - already subjected to the virus and they perhaps do not have any idea about it yet. Because it cannot be detected by the person oneself as 80 percent of its symptoms are milder.

'They are at the very front with lacking equipments'

"We have been saying this from the very beginning: First of all, the equipments of health workers must be completed. Secondly, the organization of hospitals must be handled properly.

"While health workers are working by risking their lives, messages keep coming from all parts of Turkey. They inform us about their lack of equipments. The problem with masks is supposedly solved, but it is said that there are still problems with masks and equipments in several places.

"We are making our warnings: The equipments of health workers must be completed as soon as possible. Because they are at the very front and if health workers get sick, public cannot recover.

'Some don't show symptoms, more tests needed'

"The number of tests must be increased. They say that there are 16 centers now, but it is not enough. Diagnostic test centers must be definitely opened in well-equipped university hospitals and training-research hospitals.

"We also have to identify the patients who do not show any symptoms of the virus. Because they keep on transmitting it. 80 percent of patients walk around as if they were not sick because they do not show the symptoms. They keep on spreading the virus like that.

'There cannot be such crisis management'

"The public in Turkey needs to take the warnings really seriously. Yesterday, we recommended that restaurants should be closed too. But, today, they have decided that there has to be 1 meter between the tables.

"A crisis cannot be managed like that. Bars, places of recreation have been closed. Restaurants and pastry shops must be closed as well. A 1-meter distance would not do. Italy was late to do it, now we see what people go through. We have to prevent people from coming side by side."

'We could not receive any answers to our questions'

Adıyaman has also added that though they asked the Ministry of Health "how many tests were conducted a day, how many of them turned out to be negative and positive, how many patients are hospitalized and how many of them are health workers," they could not receive any answers:

"These figures need to be clarified, because it does not have anything to do with demoralizing people. These numbers are quite transparently announced by the countries where people are diagnosed with the virus. They have to name the provinces and regions. Because the most important factor in this epidemic is quarantine and isolation. People must know that so that they will not go out if it is not really urgent or if we are talking about a crowded city, then, they will not go there and make it all the more crowded.

"It is not only us that they do not consult with. They also do not appeal to the Union of Pharmacists or to the Health Laborers' Union (SES).

"We - health workers - cannot exert pressure about anything other than the issue of public health. We are acting out of concern for people's health and making necessary warnings and criticisms for that. We are also doing this to help the Minister of Health at the same time." (TP/SD)