An Overview on Child Health Care in Turkey

The general health status of the Turkish people has improved significantly in recent years. Improvements in the health status of the child population followed the introduction of health reforms, such as the Health Transformation Program. Presently, Turkey is undergoing further important changes concerning its medical system. The changes introduced during 2005-2015 have provided almost complete health insurance coverage and increased accessibility to primary health care givers. However, health providers realize that there are ongoing inefficiencies and deficiencies in both the health care system and health education. There is a need for continuous improvement; challenges lie ahead for improving services beyond primary care. The main criticism of previous health care reforms has come mainly from professionals in the health care sector because of their privileged position as inside observers being able to analyze pros and cons of the system. Quality and sustainability of future reform programs will rely not only on the economic support of the public health and health care sector, but also on the high standards of service pathways and satisfaction of both patients and providers of care by multifactorial quality assurance and continuous quality improvement analyses of basic elements of health care.