Contemporary healthcare policies and theories in Turkey

Official URL: https://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b2351346 _(Table of contents)

This thesis aims to analyze the radically changing healthcare policies in Turkey in the period from the beginning of the 2000s until today and discover the contemporary theories to analyze these policies. The welfare state debates that began in the 1980s within the framework of neo-liberal policies gained a new dimension with the concept of the governance that is prescribed by international organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. In the thesis, the Health Transformation Program, which was formulated by the Justice and Development Party according to the governance theory immediately after the 2002 elections and put into effect in cooperation with international organizations, is considered as the fundamental transformation dynamics affecting the contemporary healthcare policies. The effects of current health policies on patients, doctors, and institutions are discussed in the context of the policymaking process of the Health Transformation Program. With Systematic literature review method used in the thesis, data on the transformation of health policies were compiled while the effect of the transformation in health policies on the patient-doctor relationship was examined at the discourse level. In this context, contemporary healthcare policies in Turkey are discussed under the framework of patient empowerment, isomorphism, and stewardship theories