The 31st Conference of the Parties (COP31) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the world's most important organization in the fight against climate change, started in Antalya COP31 Area. In this context, the Minister of Health, Prof., attended the "Dynamic and Resilient Health Systems: Country Experiences" panel held in Perge Hall, moderated by Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Former Prime Minister of Iceland and President of the WHO Pan-European Climate and Health Commission. Dr. Kemal Memişoğlu attended.
"WE PROVIDE SERVICE WITH OUR LAND, AIR AND SEA AMBULANCES"
Referring to Türkiye's work in the field of health, Minister Memişoğlu said: "We who fill this hall today represent different countries; our geographies and opportunities are different, so are the challenges we face... However, the value of human life is the same everywhere. The first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, 'All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.' Today, our duty in Antalya is to ensure that this equal value is reflected in the health service. Any mother who asks for help. No matter what language he/she calls in, there should be a medical team ready to attend to his/her child.
We expanded our nation's access to healthcare with the Health Transformation Program we carried out under the leadership of our President, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. We expanded our family medicine practices to 81 provinces and brought together advanced diagnosis and treatment opportunities under the same roof in our city hospitals. Today, we serve our nation with our 1,527 hospitals and a healthcare army of 1.5 million. "We have further strengthened our services with our land, sea and air ambulances."
"ACTION PLAN AGAINST EXTREME HEAT"
Referring to the effects of climate change on health, Memişoğlu continued: "We are preparing against climate change with the same responsibility. A heat wave can affect an entire city today; however, the support needed by an elderly person living alone, a worker working outdoors, and a child with a chronic disease is different. We prepared the 'Turkey Extreme Heat Health Action Plan' with this understanding. We evaluate meteorology, air quality and health data together, and develop risk maps at the district level. Our aim is to determine who can help before the heat sets in." "Family medicine is the basis of our preventive health approach and we have provided services to our citizens 44 million times within the scope of chronic disease controls in the last two years."
"WE EXPORT DOMESTIC RESPIRATORS TO 45 COUNTRIES"
Stating that Healthy Life Centers provide services in order to spread the culture of healthy living, Memişoğlu said that they support citizens in 17 areas, from cancer screenings to smoking cessation support, together with dietitians, psychologists, physiotherapists and child development experts. Emphasizing the success of domestic production, Minister Memişoğlu said:
"During the pandemic days, physicians all over the world were looking for respirators for patients who had difficulty breathing. Our manufacturers, engineers, physicians and scientists in Türkiye came together and produced our domestic intensive care respirator. Today, we export these devices to 45 countries. We have put the lung-heart machine, which we developed with our own means, and our domestic mobile digital x-ray devices into the service of our hospitals. We support groundbreaking studies that benefit from the patient's own immune cells in cancer treatment. By productive health, we mean this journey where scientific knowledge reaches the patient." We mean it.”
"A MORE JUST WORLD IS POSSIBLE"
Continuing his speech, Memişoğlu reminded President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's words "A more just world is possible" at the United Nations General Assembly and said:
"Justice in health requires protecting people's rights even in their most desperate moments. We all have a duty to ensure that a child in Gaza has access to clean water, a mother giving birth has access to a safe hospital, and an injured person has access to medicine and treatment. It is also the common responsibility of the international community to protect healthcare workers and ensure that they can reach their patients safely. We want to make this solidarity permanent with the Antalya Resilient Health Systems Initiative that we propose. We invite our countries to share what practices work in the field, where they encounter difficulties and what they have learned."
