Health workers who have been in the earthquake zone since the first day of the February 6 earthquakes prepared a statement in Hatay, the epicenter of the earthquake. “The health system is in ruins,” medics said.
The members of The Hatay Chamber of Medicine, Health and Social Service Workers’ Union Hatay Branch, Turkish Medical Association Central Council, and the Health and Social Service Workers’ Union Headquarters read a joint statement at the coordination center in Hatay.
“The health system is in ruins! Health services cannot be established in the earthquake region, health workers are exhausted,” read the statement under the title, “Instead of meeting basic needs such as healthy housing conditions, clean water, and adequate wastewater systems, which are important for epidemic control, people were drowned in dust with hastily carried out debris removal. Due to the fact that basic needs are not adequately met and the infrastructure to provide primary health care is still not established, scabies and lice cases continue to increase in most of the neighborhoods in Hatay today.”
“Health services cannot be delivered”
The report stated that in addition to the lack of primary health care services, the presence and infrastructure of sufficient secondary and tertiary health institutions in the center of Hatay and large districts such as İskenderun and Samandağ are still not provided. The health professionals said, “As after every major disaster we have experienced recently, the entire burden of the collapsed health system after the earthquakes in February has again been placed on the shoulders of health workers.”
The earthquakes of February 6-20, with casualties in eleven provinces, seriously affected our social life. In the earthquake region, especially in the provinces of Adıyaman, Hatay, Kahramanmaraş and Malatya, many public and private institutions were damaged, and now, there is a need to reorganize the public activities such as education and health. It’s been over ten weeks since the earthquake. Health services, which are among the most critical public services, need to be reorganized rapidly. We see that there is still a serious need for health services in both primary, secondary, and tertiary care.
The unpreparedness we have seen before the recent disasters has also been felt greatly after the earthquake. Many health institutions were among the first buildings to collapse in the earthquake. Emergency medical services were inadequate after the earthquake. The picture we saw after the earthquake, especially in the first 72 hours, painfully showed us that the disaster plans of the state, the Ministry of Health, remain only on paper.
After the first 72 hours, the serious need for primary health care, which has become even more important, has still not been met. In severely damaged cities, the vast majority of private Emergency Health Care Units that had been placed in apartment buildings were severely damaged. Although tens of thousands of physicians/health workers working outside the earthquake zone volunteered to work in the earthquake zone, the planning of the primary care labor force could not be done correctly.
Instead of meeting basic needs such as healthy housing conditions, clean water, and adequate wastewater systems that are important for epidemic control, people were drowned in dust by hasty debris removal. Due to the fact that basic needs are not adequately met and the infrastructure to provide primary health care is still not established, scabies and lice cases continue to increase in most of the neighborhoods in Hatay today.
In addition to these, cancer screening cannot be done because Cancer Early Detection Centers do not work actively in the region. Considering that the screening and inspection gap in the pandemic will continue to increase after the earthquake and the risk of asbestos exposure during the debris works in the region, We can say that the risk of advanced-stage cancer is increasing in people living in the earthquake zone.In addition to the lack of primary health care services, the existence and infrastructure of sufficient secondary and tertiary health institutions in the center of Hatay and in large districts such as İskenderun and Samandağ have still not been provided. Here, in the center of Hatay and in many large districts, physicians/health workers have no choice but to refer to external centers for many issues, such as angiography, surgeries, and obstetrics. For example, here and in more southern districts, namely Antakya, Defne, Samandağ, Altınözü and Yayladağı, there is no health institution that can give birth free of charge.
As after every major disaster we have experienced recently, the entire burden of the health system, which collapsed after the earthquakes we experienced in February, was again placed on the shoulders of health workers…
Again: this healthcare system is in ruins. It is possible to build another health system altogether based on primary care that prioritizes the health of society and health workers!
Hatay Medical ChamberHealth and Social Service Workers’ Union Hatay BranchTurkish Medical Association Central CouncilHealth and Social Service Workers’ Union Headquarters
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