Controversial legislative proposal on health care workers adopted by parliament commission

ANKARA

A controversial legislative proposal which restricts employing doctors who were dismissed with emergency decrees was passed by a parliamentary committee late Nov. 7 after heated debates between lawmakers in the Turkish Parliament.

The proposal was discussed in two separate sessions due to objections from opposition lawmakers. It passed after a change in the proposal.

The legislative proposal’s initial draft stipulated a ban on employing doctors who were dismissed with state of emergency decrees on accusations of being affiliated to terrorist organizations or groups the Turkish government sees as threat to national security as well as doctors who failed to get security clearances to work in state hospitals and institutions.

But while discussing the legislation, lawmakers from opposition parties and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) got caught up in a heated debate.

The fifth article of the initial proposal for the amendment of certain laws and decree laws on health care was adopted by the votes of the AKP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) at the parliament committee on Nov. 7.

But the opposition parties argued that the draft law was against the constitution. The AKP eventually introduced a new motion to make changes in the draft article. The article then was debated again and adopted by the commission.

The amended proposal restricts employing dismissed health care workers in public hospitals and private hospitals affiliated to the state.

According to the amended draft bill, medical doctors, medical practitioners and dentists who have been dismissed with emergency decrees for being affiliated to terrorist groups and are deemed security threats by the National Security Council will only be able to work for private sector hospitals and not public hospitals and private hospitals that work with state institutions.

The reports prepared by these doctors will not be used in judicial decisions and administrative procedures.

Doctors who are banned from working at public institutions for failing to get security clearances will be able to work in private health institutions. But those doctors will have to wait 600 days before starting their jobs, as the law foresees.