Maternal and Child Health in Turkey Through the Health Transformation Program (2003-2008)

The interrelationship among health workforce, quality of care, and health outcomes in Turkey

“…On the contrary, the unequal distribution of health‐care professionals and the geographical imbalances are obvious in Turkey (Sözmen & Ünal, 2016). Despite some improvements observed under the healthcare reforms in terms of the distribution of nurses and midwives, only limited success has been observed in the recruitment of general specialists (Aran & Roks, 2014). Inadequate training of healthcare professionals in primary care services, low levels of satisfaction, and distributional shortages cause inequalities in health outcomes (Hone et al, 2017).…”

“…Additionally, physicians in public hospitals have reported an increased workload and pressure, and easy access to healthcare services has increased the demand for nurses at all levels. Physicians and nurses have reported low levels of morale and job satisfaction under high‐workload performance conditions (Agartan, 2014; Aran & Roks, 2014). Thus, strengthening healthcare human resource capacity is necessary to continue the long‐term success of healthcare reforms (WHO, 2016).…”

Turkey Country Gender Assessment 2018

“…The decline in fertility and increase in contraceptive use has come along with a strong decline in maternal and child mortality, largely thanks to relevant health sector improvements to increase supply of health care with a strong focus on maternal and child chld care, improvements in the provision of health services, and demand side interventions that make health services more accessible (Aran et al 2015). Maternal mortality decreased from 97 to 14 per 100,000 live births from 1990 to 2015, with a steep decline starting in year 2000 ( Figure 1.7a), owing to strong deliberate government policy, reaching the average level for OECD countries by 2015.…”

Turkey Country Gender Assessment 2017

“…Although geographical differences in the health status of both Turkish men and women (measured by self-reported health and disability prevalence) have been found to be associated with their educational level and the wealth of their household (Ergin and Kunst 2015), these are less reflected in life-expectancy gaps, but in their absolute levels for both women and men. However, an evaluation of the Turkey Health Transformation Program (for the period [1995][1996][1997][1998][1999][2000][2001][2002][2003][2004][2005][2006][2007][2008] shows that the association between women's background variables and health care utilization -particularly in relation to maternal health-weakened after the program's introduction (Atun et al 2013), particularly thanks to improvements in the supply of health services (see also Aran et al 2015). The observed gender gap in life expectancy in Turkey is largely explained by differences in adult mortality rates between men and women.…”