Realistic Assessment Contradicts the Health Minister's Appointment Claims

In a speech he made last year, Minister of Health Kemal Memişoğlu said, "We can now give same-day appointments to 72 of 79 branches through MHRS" and claimed that they reduced the number of patients waiting for an appointment from 4 million to below 400 thousand. However, the appointment problems that citizens experience in healthcare are very different from what Memişoğlu expressed...

Speaking to Cumhuriyet regarding the appointment crisis in healthcare, General Health-İş Chairman Dr. Derya Uğur announced that a patient who was examined at Ankara Bilkent City Hospital Internal Medicine Department on September 18, 2026, was given an appointment for esophagoscopy, gastroscopy and duodenoscopy, which was deemed necessary, on January 15, 2027. Uğur made the following evaluation on the subject: "In the city hospital in Ankara, the capital of the Republic of Turkey, which is the President's dream, the patient is forced to wait 5 months even for an examination."

'DIRECTLY RELATED TO HUMAN LIFE'

Reminding that health is a fundamental human right for everyone, Uğur said, "Today, citizens in Turkey have to struggle with the appointment system in order to access healthcare. The problems experienced by citizens who cannot find an appointment through MHRS, wait for weeks or even months, and whose examination and treatment processes are delayed continue to be one of the most important agendas of the healthcare system.

Although the appointed minister of the political power claims that he increased accessibility in the health system, ended the queues in hospitals and solved the appointment problem, the realities on the ground are very different. Timely access to healthcare is directly related to human life. The fact that delay in diagnosis and treatment may negatively affect the patient's health cannot be ignored.

The success of health care should be measured by citizens' ability to access the health care they need in a timely and qualified manner. The public's duty is not to prove with statistics that citizens have access to health care; To ensure that every citizen has access to the health care they need as soon as possible. As General Health-Business; "We will continue our struggle with determination until our citizens have access to free, equal and qualified health services," he said.