Turkey: health workers strike for better working conditions
Turkish health workers have gone on a three-day nationwide strike. Prior to the action President Erdoğan, commenting on the large number of doctors leaving the country, had said that those who wanted to go should go. Many of those who are leaving cite long working hours, low income, increasing violence and political pressure as reasons. Some outlets find the demands for better working conditions legitimate, others are less conciliatory.
We owe much to our medics
Doctors are heroes who deserve more gratitude and better working conditions, Habertürk comments:
“The state has the task of keeping its doctors in the country. It must listen to their concerns and try to develop solutions for them, as well as improve their working conditions and raise their living standards to those of doctors in Europe. ... Do not forget that doctors were role models in the pandemic. They fought on the front line to save lives at a time when there were no vaccines or medicines, and they risked their own lives to do so. ... They are the heroic soldiers of our health army. Treat them with love and even more with respect.”
Good doctors, bad doctors
Pro-government columnist Hilâl Kaplan warns in Sabah against tarring all doctors with the same brush:
“Everyone should know that this commentary was not written for the opportunists who are twisting our president's statement 'Let them go' to sound as if he meant all doctors. ... Nor was it written for those who talk at every opportunity about how they are superior to other professions. ... But at the same time it is our duty to be a mouthpiece for the justified demands of our doctors. And of course it is the government's duty to listen to them and do what is necessary.”