ANKARA - Working at Ankara City Hospital as a nurse, Nazan Karacabey stated that the healthcare workers are at the point of burnout, while Hüsnü Yıldırım said: "We are exhausted and the consequences of this will be grave."

 

Healthcare professionals' fight against the Coronavirus (Kovid-19) pandemic continues uninterrupted since March 10, 2020, since it was first diagnosed in Turkey. At the current stage, 53 healthcare workers, 27 of whom were physicians, died due to the virus.  Another problem of healthcare professionals is that they cannot cope with the increasing number of patients. Nazan Karacabey and Hüsnü Yıldırım, healthcare professionals working in Ankara City Hospital, spoke about the situation at the hospitals, the patients and their own situation.

 

Nazan Karacabey, Co-Chair of the Ankara Branch of Health and Social Service Workers Union (SES), who works as a nurse in the city hospital, said that with the "normalization" process caused increase in the patients and therefore the healthcare workers are at the point of burnout both physically and psychologically.

 

Pointing out that all outpatient clinics have been turned to pandemic clinics, Karacabey said there are 500 healthcare workers tested positive in Ankara. Karacabey stated that eventhough the healthcare workers are constantly in contact with people with coronavirus, they are not being tested because there is not enough test kits. Karacabey added that the people have been told to take care of themselves as all physicians are assigned in pandemic services.

 

Hastanede bulunan servislerin pandemi servisine dönüştürüldüğünü aktaran Karacabey, hastanelerde çocuklar için hazırlanan Kovid servislerinin dahi dolduğunu söyledi. Ankara’da tespit edilen pozitif tanılı 500 sağlık emekçisi olduğu bilgisini paylaşan Karacabey, “Yakın zamana kadar Kovid-19 servislerinde 1 hekim hasta takibini yapıyordu. Şimdi bu sayı 4’e çıkarıldı. Bir kişi Kovid-19 tanısı almış biri ile temasta olmasına rağmen kit sayısı az olduğu için test yapılmıyor. Hekimler pandemi servislerinde görevlendirildikleri için, diğer alanlara da hekim açığı oluşturuldu. Yine pandemi dışında kalan hastaların bakım sayısı giderek düştü ve insanlara ‘Başınızın çaresine bakın’ denildi” diye konuştu.  

 

Karacabey listed the precautions to be taken as follows: Scientific committee can not consist of physicians only. Health workers struggling with the pandemic are a whole. There must be a healthcare worker on the board to represent each area. Because different problems are ignored. Again, as physician-oriented regulations are made, the final result cannot be obtained. We are at the top of the risk group, but we are not the only one working in the field. The rights of all workers must be protected, not only the healthcare workers. Health workers should be paid enough to live a humane life. Professional organizations and trade unions should not be excluded from this struggle. Otherwise, we will all suffer the consequences.

 

THE HOSPITALS ARE AT FULL CAPACITY

 

Hüsnü Yıldırım, a technical personnel at the same hospital emphasized that the healthcare workers are exhausted. Stating that the consequences of this will be grave, Yıldırım said: "Too many healthcare workers got sick in this period and died as a result of the virus. The reason for this is that the process is not carried out transparently. The workers have been made to work without precautions in a period when people are told to stay at home. To handle this process effectively, people must be tested. But there are not enough test kits at the hospitals. If the steps to be taken in the next period are not taken carefully, we will experience a more painful period. The hospitals are at full capacity. Something must be done about this."

 

 

MA / Emrullah Acar