The TBMM Infant Mortality and Private Health Institutions Investigation Commission convened

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Creation Date: February 26, 2025 23:46

AK Party Adıyaman Deputy İshak Şan, in his speech at the opening of the meeting, reminded that they paid a working visit to İzmir as a Commission on February 21-22 in order to conduct on-site inspections.

Şan stated that information was provided to the Commission in many areas during the visit and that they will visit the Provincial Health Directorate in Ankara tomorrow and inspect the 112 Command and Control Center, the Etlik City Hospital children's ward and the neonatal intensive care unit.

Speaking at the commission, Prof. Dr. Cemil Taşçıoğlu City Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Education and Administration Manager Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ercan Tutak shared graphs showing infant deaths and personnel statistics for 2021.

Tutak said that more infant deaths occur in the Southeastern Anatolia Region, that Turkey "spends very little money on health" and that Turkey is ahead of many OECD countries in terms of the number of beds.

Noting that the number of neonatal intensive care beds in private hospitals is more than the total number of beds in the Ministry of Health and university hospitals, Tutak noted that 75 percent of newborn deaths occur in the first week and 25 percent after one week.

Tutak, who argued that there were "huge gaps" in inspections and that penalties were "not a deterrent", stated that "raid-type inspections" were much more beneficial than announced inspections.

Tutak, who showed the correspondence he had with his colleagues during his time working in a private hospital in Istanbul, said:

"The discussions on this platform about how newborn babies could be born by neonatal specialists and how this organization could be done must have reached the ears of Mr. Kemal Memişoğlu, the Provincial Health Director of the time, because he established the Istanbul Newborn Branch Commission on December 29, 2016. In this commission, I was the representative from the private hospital, Ayhan Hocam was the representative from the foundation university hospital, and academics from Istanbul Marmara University were invited to the commission and Mr. Kemal Memişoğlu said, 'If you were responsible for everything in Istanbul, how would you solve the newborn problem in Istanbul? Organize a workshop and let us know your suggestions.' We worked together for about 5-6 weeks, with each session lasting 4-5 hours, and listed the suggestions, and we witnessed that some things changed in line with those suggestions, at least in terms of referrals."

"IT HAPPENED DUE TO LACK OF SUPERVISION"

Tutak, who emphasized that the most important thing that reduces neonatal deaths is care, said, "Both care during pregnancy, care at a suitable center during birth, and care during follow-up if followed up at that center... How is the quality of care measured? It is measured by nursing care. If a nurse is looking after four babies, she is not able to do so."

Reminding that there are hospitals grouped as A, B and C among private hospitals, Tutak stated the following:

"For almost no hospital, taking care of neonatal intensive care patients is as profitable as performing plastic surgery, orthopedics, ear, nose and throat surgery. Group A hospitals generally do this job for prestige. For 17 years, I worked in a group A private hospital with 30 percent of the bed capacity, the rest were empty, but the management never said to me, 'Why are these beds empty, why aren't you filling them?'"

Drawing attention to the irregularities in group B and C hospitals, Tutak said that the inspections were inadequate.

"IT IS NOT ENOUGH FOR US TO BE HONORABLE AND HONORABLE"

Istanbul Medipol University International Faculty of Medicine Dean Prof. Dr. Ayhan Taştekin also pointed out the importance of neonatology specialization and drew attention to the fact that 90 percent of the currently open positions remain vacant.

Taştekin emphasized that neonatology specialists should look after newborns and drew attention to the importance of providing a sustainable working environment for these specialists and establishing shift systems as needed.

Underlining that a system should be established in which neonatal intensive care nurses are selected, Taştekin said, "Being a neonatal nurse should be prestigious and privileged. It should be encouraged, higher prestige, higher salary."

Taştekin, who stated that Level "1 and 2 patients" are shown as Level "3 patients" and receive more allowance from the Social Security Institution, said, "It is not enough for us to be honorable and honest. We also need to weed out and remove those who are dishonest from among us."

Ankara University Hospitals Coordinator Deputy Chief Physician Prof. Dr. Ömer Erdeve also said that the pregnant woman should be discussed just like the newborn.

Erdeve, who explained the importance of steroid treatment to the mother if there is a tendency for premature birth, which will reduce the problems that may occur in the baby, noted that this practice, which is around 95 percent in the USA, is around 40 percent in Turkey.

Stating that breast milk usage rates are also low, Erdeve emphasized that breast milk rates should be increased, especially for premature babies.

"INDICATOR OF THE DEVELOPMENT LEVEL OF COUNTRIES"

Ankara University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Child Health and Diseases, Faculty Member Prof. Dr. Begüm Atasay pointed out that maternal and infant health is an indicator of the development level of countries.

Drawing attention to the fact that the infant mortality rate in Turkey is 10 per thousand, Atasay reported that the infant mortality rate in Adıyaman, Kahramanmaraş, Hatay, Şanlıurfa and Gaziantep is above the Turkish average.

Stating that there are 101 level 3 intensive care units licensed by the Ministry of Health, Atasay noted that most of the third-level care in Turkey is provided by the private sector with licenses.