01.10.2025 23:09
Prof. Dr. Erol Keleş, the AK Party Elazığ Deputy, who was a guest on Haberler.com live broadcast, made evaluations regarding complaints from citizens in the health sector and issues such as the inability to find appointments in hospitals. As a physician himself, Prof. Dr. Keleş stated, "What we need to do is strengthen the primary care, that is, family health centers and family medicine."
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The Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) 28th Term 4th Legislative Year has begun. Among the guests of Haberler.com, which sheds light on the agenda of Ankara with live broadcasts from the parliament garden, were AK Party Batman Deputy Ferhat Nasıroğlu and AK Party Elazığ Deputy Prof. Dr. Erol Keleş.
Responding to questions from Haberler.com News Director Olgun Kızıltepe and presenter Melis Yaşar, Keleş, who is a physician himself, made evaluations regarding complaints from citizens in the health sector, such as difficulties in finding appointments or relevant doctors through the Central Physician Appointment System (MHRS).
"REVOLUTIONARY TRANSFORMATIONS HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN HEALTHCARE" Prof. Dr. Keleş, who is also a physician, stated: "Let me put it this way, actually, when we go back a bit before the 2000s, we all remember very clearly that we had serious problems. And after the 2000s, there were truly revolutionary transformations in healthcare under our government. If we were to explain these, we would really need hours here, but at the point we have reached, especially regarding the problems in the appointment system, our Ministry of Health and the Minister have taken very serious measures in this regard.
"WHAT WE NEED TO DO IS STRENGTHEN FAMILY HEALTH CENTERS AND FAMILY MEDICINE" Actually, our problem is this. We have a tiered system in healthcare, which consists of primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. Tertiary hospitals, or educational hospitals, come to mind. Naturally, with this transformation in healthcare, there has been a tendency for our citizens to lean towards the tertiary level.
What we actually need to do is strengthen the primary level, that is, family health and family medicine. Our Minister has particularly emphasized strengthening the primary level. For this purpose, the family health centers have been strengthened both physically and technologically. In other words, if a citizen can have all their tests done and can be examined when they go to their family physician, and if there are no problems with these, why should they prefer a tertiary level?
AK Party Elazığ Deputy Prof. Dr. Erol Keleş (On the right) "WE NEED TO SOLVE THIS ISSUE AT THE PRIMARY LEVEL" Therefore, we need to solve this issue at the primary level. It should be noted that our tertiary hospitals have started to fill up with unnecessary patients. By unnecessary, I mean those who do not need treatment but have questions in their minds, wondering if they should go and have some tests done. We need to solve these issues at our primary level. Tertiary hospitals should primarily treat patients who require treatment and should provide the necessary training and equipment.
"IN THE COMING YEARS, WE WILL HAVE OVERCOME THE ISSUES RELATED TO APPOINTMENTS" We are doing very well. God willing, if we can establish this referral chain between the primary and secondary levels, I am sure that we will have overcome the difficulties in getting appointments, especially at the tertiary level, and the data from the recent period shows this.
For example, family physicians have been given the authority to make appointments recently. This means that when you go to your family physician, if they deem it appropriate, they can make an appointment for you at the hospital. Family physicians have been given a quota. This was also extremely important. Of course, we are going step by step. God willing, in the coming years, we will have overcome the issues related to appointments."
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