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Ombudsman Institution

and units remain ready to support the treatment units for COVID-19 patients
when necessary.

5.4. Decisions on Working Conditions and Healthcare Professionals

During the pandemic, it has been clearly seen that the workload on
the healthcare professionals as well as their risk exposure have increased.
Therefore, it has been decided to recruit additional 32,000 healthcare staff
in a short time with an aim to increase the manpower capacity in the field
of health. In this regard, to protect the healthcare professionals against any
risks, 24 million surgical masks, more than 3 million N95 masks, more than 1
million protective overalls and glasses have been distributed to the hospitals
at first stage. These medical supplies have been continuously distributed in
order to prevent any insufficiency problem at hospitals. The sufficiency and
accessibility of protective medical supplies have been a challenge for many
countries across the world. In Türkiye, in addition to sufficient provision of
protective medical supplies, some other measures have also been taken to
provide transportation and accommodation of healthcare professionals. In
this regard, free transportation to and from the hospital, and accommodation
of healthcare professionals near the hospitals have been provided so that they
can be isolated. Also, a mobile application has been developed by the Ministry
of Health to psychologically support the healthcare staff. In order to support
them financially, additional payments have been increased for a period of 3
months. And, the legislative proposal on prevention of violence against the
healthcare staff was approved by the Parliament and become a law on 16 April
2020.

5.5. Public Information

During the times of pandemic, inaccurate information and unreal statistics
may further panic the society. In order to prevent it, the Ministry of Health has
been announcing the daily figures such as total number of cases, tests, deaths,
patients in intensive care unit, patients on ventilators, and the recoveries.

To this end, the Ministry of Health has started to daily give latest
information and figures regarding the coronavirus through the following
website: https://covid19.saglik.gov.tr/

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