The purpose of this paper is to discuss the complexity of Turkish health sector, which prevent it from providing appropriate health service to its customers. A large number of public, semi-public and private institutions are engaged in financing and delivering health care in Turkey. The public sector is not limited to the Ministry of Health. The Social Insurance Organisation does not only operate its own hospitals, it also purchases services for its members from public and private facilities. The army has a large network of facilities and covers the health needs of its active members, retired members and their dependents. Other ministries or public institutions operate their own hospitals. In addition to the very active private-for-profit sector, there are many foundations and hospitals for religious groups and foreign communities. Most of the health services, however, are supplied under three largely autonomous systems: (I) the Ministry of Health, (ii) the Social Insurance System and (iii) medical schools. While the Ministry of Health is responsible for the design and implementation of the country's health policies, its authority over other health service providers is rather limited. Besides its regulatory and policy function, the Ministry of Health provides preventive services as well as inpatient and outpatient curative care through a nation-wide network of hospitals and health centres. The limited technical possibilities of health centres and patients' preference for specialised care have been determined in many studies to be the main reasons for low utilisation rate: thus the referral chain is circumvented hospital outpatient clinics.
Learning Objectives: The complexity of Turkish health sector which prevent it from providing appropriate health service to its customers will be discussed
Keywords: Health Care Politics,
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.