Arti Gercek reports that the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) shared new data on the increase in the number of healthcare workers who want to go abroad in recent years. According to the TTB’s statement, applications for the Good Conduct certificate, which health workers have to obtain to go abroad, continued to increase in the first three months of 2023.
235 applications were made to the TTB for the Good Conduct Certificate in March only, with 700 applications made in the first three months of 2023.
The TTB’s post reads: “The number of applications to the TTB for the ‘Good Conduct Certificate’ to TTB was 235 in March and 700 in the first three months of 2023. Heavy, unsafe, and precarious working conditions that cause burnout in all our colleagues, especially those working in the earthquake zone, must come to an end.”
WHAT HAD ERDOGAN SAID?
Last year, President Erdogan had said, “If they want to go, let them go. We will put into employment our recently graduated students here,” regarding the doctors who had met with female village heads in Bestepe last year on the occasion of International Women’s Day and who had expressed a desire to go abroad, especially due to poor working conditions.
Erdogan had used the following statements:
“Doctors are leaving only because they do not get enough money. My dear brothers and sisters, I speak sincerely, a friend tells the truth no matter how bitter. We are the ones who have constructed these hospitals. Have these doctors not been educated and raised by this state? So, what now? This state has educated and raised you, and health is the most expensive field of all. But [now you say] we give too little money. I asked how little the lowest earner makes. Eight to nine thousand, with top earners making roughly 25 thousand. Despite this, they run elsewhere because the private sector pays much higher. I speak frankly, I like to speak frankly. If they want to go, let them. We will put into employment our recently graduated students here, and we will continue [the job] here with them. If necessary, we will quickly invite back those who want to return to our country from abroad. Don’t worry, there will be no shortage here. It is probably not very humane to impose a sacred profession like a doctor.”
Source: Gerçek News
