Professor breaks doctor’s nose in latest act of violence

AMASYA

Turkey, which has been struggling with violence against health workers, has witnessed yet another case in which a doctor broke another doctor’s nose in a fistfight in the Black Sea province of Amasya.

According to local media reports, Hamit Serdar Başbuğ, the head of the cardiovascular surgery department of the Amasya University Medical Faculty, got upset with doctor Ercan Kahraman.

Başbuğ insisted that Kahraman had bought a piece of medical equipment at a high price and declined to sign the bill. The quarrel turned into a scuffle and the scuffle turned into a fistfight in a short time.

An investigation was opened against Başbuğ who broke his colleague’s nose as Başbuğ’s recent social media post about violence against health workers emerged.

“It is my serious offer. Carry permits should be given to physicians, then violence against doctors will finish. Nobody rises against the police. Why? Because they have guns,” he wrote.

The issue of attacks against health workers was always a public problem in Turkey, however, amid the pandemic, the violence against health workers skyrocketed by 62 percent in 2021 compared to the previous year.

In the mentioned time, 190 acts of violence were recorded with some 316 health workers losing their lives.