Development of Health Services in Türkiye from National, Regional and International Perspective
Chapter from the book:
Şahin,
A.
(ed.)
2023.
Academic Research and Evaluations in Social Sciences - VI.
Synopsis
Improving health services is of critical importance for the general well-being and socio-economic sustainability. This article examines the development of health services in Türkiye in the 2005-2021 period descriptively at the national, regional and international level with data compiled from TÜİK, the Ministry of Health and the OECD. The health care capacity in our country has shown a significant development in terms of the number of health personnel, institutions and beds. The number of people per healthcare personnel decreased in all categories. However, while the number of patients per physician has decreased, the number of patient applications per physician has increased. The rapid increase in the number of private hospitals has expanded the share of private healthcare sector. Private hospitals have reached a significant share in total bed, intensive care bed and medical device capacity. Despite the growth in the private health sector, the share of the public in total health expenditures is much higher than private expenditures, and the health system remains essentially public-dominated. Regional inequalities in the field of health services, especially against the eastern regions, have still not been eliminated. Compared to the western regions, the eastern regions lag behind in terms of healthcare use, the number of healthcare personnel and hospitals is fewer, and the patient density is increasing. Türkiye exhibits a weak performance in health sector indicators among OECD countries. It ranks last in the number of physicians, nurses and midwives per 100,000 people, and is close to the bottom group in the number of beds per 1,000 people. It ranks last in the OECD in terms of the ratio of current health expenditures to national income and is in the lower band in terms of per capita health expenditures. It would be appropriate to continue to strengthen the infrastructure and personnel in the Turkish health system against the risks of possible new epidemics after the COVID-19 outbreak and regional wars, and to increase the country's self-sufficiency with domestic and national production in the field of health technologies. By increasing public health investments in Türkiye to meet the needs of the aging population and eliminate regional service gaps, the negative effects of poverty and income inequality can be reduced by increasing access to health services for disadvantaged groups.