Mehmet Nur Ulus, who works as a nurse in the Covid-19 service in Diyarbakır (Amed), claims that the quarantine period has been reduced from 14 to 10 days, and that the test results of healthcare workers have been manipulated.
Ulus, along with Rezan Altındağ, who is a Diyarbakır (Amed) Chamber of Medicine (DTO) member and Emergency Services doctor, talked to Mesopotamia News about flaws in the system.
Altındağ said that the problems of healthcare workers were ignored and that there is an equipment problem in the hospital. “Ten healthcare workers have been infected with the virus so far”, Altındağ said, adding: ”Our friends have become unable to breathe under intensive working conditions. Last week a friend of ours committed suicide in Ağrı. We are in a bad situation. This process needs to be fixed. The conditions of health workers should be corrected as soon as possible”.
Drawing attention to the lack of healthcare professionals in hospitals, Altındağ said that workers who were unfairly expelled should be reinstated and transparent and democratic health policy should be implemented.
“Even if a health worker has a positive test for coronavirus, they are not allowed to isolate, and the test result will be labelled as negative in the report”, said Ulus. “The report is not given to healthcare professionals. A letter was sent to hospitals, saying ‘Do not give a report to healthcare professionals'”.
”Fifteen healthcare workers were infected”, said Ulus. ”Many healthcare workers want to quit due to pandemic conditions. More than 10,000 people have come to the hospital because of the virus so far. Two thousand have had to stay in the hospital. We work under intense conditions”.
Health and Social Service Workers Union (SES) Diyarbakır branch co-chair Şiyar Güldiken said that the number of healthcare workers tested for Covid-19 in Diyarbakır has exceeded 800. Ten healthcare workers have died so far.
According to recent statements by the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), at least 95 health workers have died of coronavirus in Turkey. Amnesty International’s report claims that at least 7,000 healthcare workers worldwide have died of coronavirus.
