ANKARA, July 24 (Xinhua) -- The recent murder of a Turkish cardiologist on duty by a patient's relative has sparked an outcry among health workers nationwide, raising public concerns about the growing violence against doctors from patients in the country.
On July 6, Ekrem Karakaya, a 47-year-old doctor was shot dead while he was working at Konya City Hospital in central Türkiye by Haci Mehmet Akcay, a security guard of another hospital, who then reportedly killed himself.
According to local media reports, the assailant had allegedly held Karakaya responsible for the death of his mother, who died a month after having an angiography.
In Türkiye, 12 doctors were murdered in the last 17 years, more than 100,000 verbally or physically assaulted in the past 10 years, while 41,768 health workers subjected to violence in the past two years, according to the Turkish Medical Association (TTB).
The "white code" system established by the Turkish Health Ministry in 2016 to identify violence in the medical workplace shows 11,942 alerts of violence in 2020 and nearly 30,000 last year.
In the wake of Karakaya's murder, thousands of health workers mounted a nationwide strike in protest of what has become a chronic security problem for them in Türkiye.
Adem, a Turkish doctor who fell victim to such an attack, told Xinhua about the trauma he has suffered from the attack.
"I was working in the emergency service when relatives of a patient suffering from a brain aneurysm accused our medical staff of not being fast enough to treat, even though the patient was already in critical condition when he was brought to us, and then died," said Adem who asked not to reveal his surname.
"I suffered blows to my face and chest. However, the perpetrators were set free after short detention despite my legal complaint against them," the doctor lamented.
Dogan Erogullari, a member of the Central Council of the TTB, also complained of what he calls "impunity" for perpetrators who commit verbal abuse and physical violence against health workers.
"The mental health of the public has deteriorated, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis," said Erogullari, a family doctor in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep.
According to monthly reports by the Turkish Union of Health Care and Social Service Workers, violence against health workers increased by 62 percent in 2021, with only 11 percent of assailants arrested and 71 percent of them facing no charges.
Violence, along with inflation galloping toward three-digit percentage and a worsening economy, has prompted an exodus of physicians from Türkiye: nearly 1,400 in 2021 alone and close to 4,000 in the last decade, the TTB warned.
"A citizen can call a doctor and threaten to kill him because he knows that he will get away with it. Therefore, we need stronger laws to protect health workers," Erogullari told Xinhua. ■
