The regulations implemented by the Ministry of Health in the family medicine system keep the differences of opinion between professional organizations and health management on the agenda. In İSTAHED’s statements in the last year, workload, pricing system, appointment planning and working conditions of physicians came to the fore. The last issue brought up by the association was the video examination appointments, which started as of November 1, 2026. Drawing attention to the current patient density of family physicians, İSTAHED requested that the new application be rearranged by taking into account the conditions in the field.
40 PERCENT IS IN FAMILY PHYSICIANS
According to the data shared by İSTAHED, family physicians, who constitute approximately one-eighth of the physicians in Türkiye, provide 40 percent of the total outpatient services. A family doctor provides an average of 15 thousand 530 outpatient services per year. This figure corresponds to 62 applications per day when calculated over approximately 250 working days. The association argues that giving video examination duties to physicians who carry out services such as vaccination, pregnancy and baby follow-ups, and chronic disease follow-ups, in addition to face-to-face examinations, will increase the workload.
CLAIM OF LOSSES IN SALARIES
Another issue brought up by the association is the changes made in the screening and follow-up criteria of the Disease Management Platform. İSTAHED explained that the new regulations impose additional responsibilities on family physicians, while reducing some performance coefficients. Stating that coefficient changes in diabetes, hypertension, obesity, cardiovascular diseases and elderly monitoring will negatively affect income, the association announced that the total calculated coefficient decreased to 0.8339.
DEPENDENT ON PERFORMANCE
Association President Dr. Sercan Ahmet Uluç states that 65 percent of family physicians’ income is tied to performance criteria. It is also claimed that physicians are paid according to many criteria such as patient satisfaction, prescribed drugs, number of scans and registered patients’ applications to health institutions. MHRS regulations were among the criticisms of İSTAHED in the last year..
REQUEST FOR “REREGULATION”
Finally, the video examination application, which was launched on November 1, came to the fore. Arguing that new appointments during busy polyclinic hours may bring doctors and patients face to face, İSTAHED drew attention to the risk of violence in healthcare. The association called for the applications to be prepared by taking the opinions of physicians working in the field and for video examination hours to be determined according to the physicians’ own work plans.
