No revert back to full-day law: Çelik

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

AKP deputy chair Hüseyin Çelik talk to reporters in AKP headquaters. AA photo

The Constitutional Court’s partial annulment of a law barring public-sector doctors from opening private clinics is not meant to result in a sudden return to past practices, ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy chair Hüseyin Çelik said yesterday.

“The Health Ministry and the government are restless on it,” Çelik said, adding that some doctors had used their time at public hospitals as a means to finding new patients for their private practices.

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) had taken the law to the Constitutional Court, asking for the annulment of certain provisions and for the abolition of the related act in force. The court partially annulled the law on July 18 on the grounds that the related legal arrangement, which imposed various prohibitions on doctors working at institutions such as public and university hospitals, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), and the Gülhane Military Academy of Medicine (GATA), was not under the government’s authority according to the Authority Law. If and when the government makes necessary corrections in line with the Authority Law, the court will be able to conduct a review of the article. Çelik said the government would spend the six-month period set out in the court’s decision to make necessary corrections to the law. In the meantime, there will be no change in practice for doctors unable to work at private clinics due to their assignment in the public sector. “We will take the necessary steps once the court declares its reasoning on the verdict,” he said. Meanwhile, Turkish Medical Association (TTB) chairman Özdemir Aktan said the Ministry of Health will make every effort to pass a law making it illegal for doctors working in the public sector to open private clinics, but the number of such clinics is no more than 1,000. Turkish universities’ medical faculties “have been loosing blood” because of these legislative changes, Aktan said.