The Scale Development on Health Professionals’ Perceptions About Health Sector Privatization in Turkey

The world has witnessed remarkable changes in healthcare since neoliberal policies came into force. Like European countries, Turkey also has implemented the liberal policies, the health transformation program launched in 2003 and paved the way to privatization activities in healthcare sector. The structure of hospitals and health services delivery will start to change with Public Private Partnership Model. This study was aimed at developing a scale on health professionals' perceptions about health sector privatization in Turkey. Based on previous studies and professional findings, twenty-five sample statements were used to evaluate the perception of health staff on privatization in the Turkish health services. Research sample consists of 325 health workers who actually work in family healthcare centers and secondary public hospitals (physicians, nurses and allied health professionals) in Edirne Province and in its' districts. The surveys were analyzed by IBM SPSS Statistic 20.0 and IBM SPSS Amos 23.0 programs via reliability, validity and factor analysis. The content validity of the scale was found as relevant for the study (CVI=>0.87). Moreover, face validity score reflected that statements could be clearly understood (90%). The Keiser- Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy indicated that sample is useful and suitable for factor analysis process (0,879). Again, the Cronbach's Alpha of the F1 is 0,848 and F2 is 0,703. According to the split half method, the scale is highly reliable. CFA results show that the model does fit data adequately. (Chi Square: 168,041, CMIN/DF: 2,241, GFI: 0,927, AGFI: 0,898, CFI: 0,930, RMSEA: 0,063, PCLOSE: 0,049). To sum up, reliability and validity analysis of the privatization scale conducted by authors indicated that privatization scale could be used as a valid and reliable tool to measure the privatization perception of health staff in the health sector.