ZEYNEP AKGÜL

Ankara- Healthcare workers have gone through a very hard time due to aggravating conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic. The healthcare workers, who were clapped all over the world during the first days of the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, had faced many problems before the pandemic outbreak. The pandemic has deepened the problems faced by the healthcare workers for years and it has put their lives at risk. All faults in the system have affected the healthcare workers as usual and the healthcare workers have continued to be subjected to violence.

These days, the conditions faced by the healthcare workers haven’t been improved, they have continued to be victims of appointment to faraway places and their concerns for their future have increased. The number of retirement or resignations of healthcare workers has been increasing as they cannot make their voices heard and lost their hope. Nebahat Yılmaz is only one of the healthcare workers.  She has worked for a private hospital for 12 years. We spoke to her about the problems she has faced due to the pandemic, how she has dealt with these problems, and the COVID-19 pandemic response management.

The problems faced by the healthcare workers have increased after the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. What kind of problems have you faced in this process?

Firstly, I want to thank you to give us a chance to express ourselves. I have worked for a private hospital for 12 years. Apart from the difficulties we have faced due to our profession, working for a private hospital sometimes can be harder. In addition to these, the pandemic has pushed my colleagues and me into a hard period. I had to stay away from my family and my children for a while. We had many difficulties looking after our children since my husband has also worked in the private sector. Sometimes, we had to leave them alone at home despite their young age. As worrying about carrying viruses from the hospital to the home stretches us, we have also faced people isolating themselves from the healthcare workers because they see the healthcare workers as a virus. I sometimes felt alone.

As you mentioned before, we faced many problems before the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak and these problems continue to increase due to the pandemic. I especially want to talk about the beginning of the pandemic. The first coronavirus cases in Turkey were announced after receiving news about how the Covid-19 pandemic spread in China and several countries. In those days, everyone was worried in fear, what frightened me the most was these fears turned into a panic. As a health worker, I had of course fears. I stayed away from my family and children for a long time because of the fear of getting the coronavirus home and causing other people to be infected with it. Those days were very hard days for me. Apart from these, our burden increased with the increase of the cases, we have been experiencing higher workloads.

How do you deal with the difficulties and problems?

I cannot always deal with them. I just have to admit. Working for a private hospital has already affected me badly. I mean, I'm trying to normalize the situation in my own way. But seeing that my patients are getting well increases my motivation.

Is your protective equipment still insufficient? How is their quality?

In the beginning, we had limited equipment but now we don’t have any problems with material and equipment. But their quality can be questioned.

“We feel worthless”

Can we say that the pandemic makes the problems created by the health program more visible?

Yes, we have seen the problems faced by healthcare workers for years being discussed on social platforms more. The biggest problems faced by the healthcare workers are occupational disease, overtime wages, our personal rights, and violence. However, these issues are still not clear while we are fighting the pandemic and this is saddening. We were applauded for several days but our employee personal rights haven’t been clarified and this causes us to feel worthless.

“Covid-19 should be accepted as an occupational disease”

Our last question, what are your demands?

I can briefly list our demands as follows:

-      Implementation of training for the healthcare workers in qualified environments, providing laboratory conditions for us.

-      The Covid-19 should be accepted as an occupational disease and families of healthcare workers died of the coronavirus should benefit from this right.

-       Nurses and other healthcare workers should be well paid for their skills and comprehensive care.

-        Nurses should be politically supported to have a union.  

-      The Ministry of Health should support the healthcare workers working in the private sector to make them visible.