Health minister vows swiftly finalizing laws against violence

ANKARA

Legal regulations designed to prevent violence against healthcare workers may be given final touches soon, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has said.

Healthcare workers are demanding more effective laws to protect them when they practice their profession.

“Regulations that will protect those who provide health services will come soon. Culprits of violent acts will be out of our sights for a long period of time. Jails are their place,” Koca wrote on Twitter on Feb. 22, implying that new regulations will bring harsher punishments.

Koca posted the Twitter message following yet another attack on a doctor, who worked as neurologist at the Ankara Training and Research Hospital.

Some 57 healthcare workers in Turkey were subjected to violence in January alone, the Union of Healthcare and Social Service Workers (Sağlık-Sen) said in a recent report.

In the month, a total of 30 such violence incidents occurred, the union said, calling on authorities to take swift measures.