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Hundreds of Turkish doctors are leaving the country in the hope of finding better working conditions and quality of life as Turkey faces major economic problems and with annual inflation reaching around 80%, the highest level in 25 years. the last.
Doctors say they are tired of the minimum wages and difficult working conditions, where there are also cases of violence against them.
In 2021, more than 1,000 doctors asked by the Turkish Medical Association to provide documents showing that they are licensed and regularly pay their dues to the state, in order to be able to practice their profession outside Turkey.
Doctor Tahsin Cinar, who works as an anesthesiologist at a university hospital, is just one of thousands upset with the conditions faced by a professional in this field in Turkey.
He says that being a doctor has become one of the most difficult jobs and one of the reasons is the low salaries. Mr. Cinar says that some of his colleagues are taking German language courses to work in this country. He adds that the so-called “brain drain” phenomenon, the mass departure of professionals, was happening in Turkey.
“Being a doctor is undoubtedly one of the most difficult professions in Turkey. The doctors are earning below the poverty line and this is not even enough to cover the rent of a house in Istanbul. We are trying to survive by taking more night shifts“, he says.
In March, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said doctors who wanted to go abroad could leave.
Later, he softened his tone and said he believed the doctors who had left would return home once Turkey promised a “bright future”.
Violence against healthcare professionals has also been on the rise in Turkey, at a time when medical workers are facing major burnout after two years under the coronavirus pandemic.
Many of them are waiting for laws to be passed providing tougher punishments for those who attack doctors on duty, which Mr. Erdogan promised to do during a speech in March.
Doctor Burak Acikgoz, a Turkish doctor who immigrated to Sweden was not one of those who pinned his hopes on the government. He left the country three years ago, shortly after becoming a father.
“When you have children you realize that there are things that belong to the future that you have to worry about, so the most appropriate thing was to leave the country. At that time it was easier to go to Sweden and the conditions offered by this country were the best, from a material and moral point of view“.
Dr. Onur Naci Karahanci of the Turkish Medical Association says that European countries are attracting doctors with a better quality of life, thus bringing the best professionals in the field from other parts of the world, which cost them very little. .
“There is a more formal migration to Europe and Europe is trying to choose the best and the cheapest. If we want to see the reasons behind this migration, although we can define it as something related to freedom of movement, it is also about the quality of life above all“.
Economist and researcher Enes Ozkan of Istanbul University says that rising inflation in Turkey is “directly linked to the brain drain”.
“We are not seeing a high rate of brain drain from other countries due to the inflation the world is experiencing at the moment. However, inflation in Turkey is much higher than in any other country in the world and what is actually making the problem worse in Turkey is the bad policies of the government.“.
Annual inflation in Turkey reached around 80% in June, the highest rate since 1998, according to official data released on Monday by the Turkish Institute of Statistics (TurkStat).
The release of the figures comes as the country faces a steep rise in the cost of living. Consumer prices have increased by 4.95% on a monthly basis. Contrary to the experts, Mr. Erdogan insists that the high cost of borrowing is causing the increase in inflation, leading to the reduction of interest rates, to promote economic growth and exports./VOA
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