Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
13th ESA (European Sociological Association) Conference | (Un)Making Europe: Capitalism, Solidarities, Subjectivities , Athens, Yunanistan, 29 Ağustos - 01 Eylül 2017, ss.577
MARKETIZATION AND TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE: TURKISH
SURGEONS IN A CHANGING CONTEXT
Gülşah Başkavak
Middle East Technical University
Turkey is undergoing a transformation of the healthcare system in ways both
similar to and different from the changes in European countries. Turkey is among
the growing number of countries that have implemented market oriented reforms
in their healthcare services as part of “the global reform epidemic”. Surgery
and surgeons occupy a central place in the debates regarding the pros and cons
of the transformation policy and technological advancements in surgery followed
in the last decade. While health professionals are usually considered as a unified
group in this literature, this study focuses on the surgeons. In this context,
this paper aims to explore how these changes are experienced by the surgeons,
how surgeons adapt to the extensive transformations in their environment and
how the specific characteristics of surgery determine the ways of adaptation
taken by different surgeons. The paper is based on a field research conducted
in Istanbul, Turkey including in-depth, semi-structured interviews with
twenty-six surgeons from six different surgical branches, together with
observations in hospitals and operating rooms. The findings of the study
indicate a variation in the ways surgeons adopt, resist or cope with transformation.
Surgeons are more advantaged compared to other doctors, due to their close relationship
with medical technologies. While this advantage allows them to develop various
strategies, the increasing dominance of marketization is also observed. The
paper aims to propose a typology of surgeons according to their responses to
the transformation in healthcare system in Turkey, which has direct effects on
their work.