Historical perspective on the health transformation in Turkey

Abstract

Turkey has undertaken major reforms since 2003 to transform and improve its healthcare system and health outcomes. This historical evaluation aims to shares experiences gained from Turkey’s Health Transformation Program (HTP) with scholars, policymakers, and the public. Until today from the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, the legal regulations and practices for improving health services have been explained, and the results have been evaluated from a historical perspective. Our review shows that HTP has created a model that achieved goals for universal health insurance, family medicine, access to health services, and service quality. HTP increased access to health services and affected service quality. However, it has not achieved full decentralization of secondary and tertiary healthcare providers. Public hospital associations and public health directorates were reunited under the Provincial Health Directorate. It is stated that various factors such as having three different bodies in administration, problems with the competence of appointed managers, unsettled organizational structure, more than one managers being appointed and frequent changes in office, dissatisfaction of healthcare workers, and problems in communication and coordination. Countries wishing to reform may be more productive in implementing decentralization considering in their own circumstances.