Hasta Haklarının İhlalinde Sağlık Çalışanları Arasında Eşitsizlik/Inequality Among Healthcare Professionals Regarding Violation of Patient Rights

Healthcare professionals work independently or as an employee of the public or private sector health institutions. Private sector healthcare professionals, in case of violation of patients' rights, are obliged to pay compensation within the framework of a contract of mandate or a work contract, employment without mandate or torts and are subject to general terms within the context of criminal liability. Public healthcare employees are considered civil servants or contracted personnel, thus they cannot be sued for compensation. However, if the lawsuit against the Administration results for compensation, the compensation is recourse to the public healthcare employees whose actions are considered to call for compensation in the first place. As for terms of criminal liability, if the Administration decides that the public healthcare personnel must be tried the prosecutor's office takes action. It is our opinion, that the healthcare professionals, when it comes to the violation of patient's rights being subject to different regulations according which sector they work for, public or private, is against the principal of equality. We furthermore conclude that the public healthcare professionals must be considered contractors and special regulations must be made to stipulate procedures and principles in line with working conditions in healthcare.