Biomedical Engineers in the Prison of Unemployment!

In the press release made by the 25th Term Executive Board of the Chamber of Electrical Engineers on Wednesday, December 16, 2020, “Biomedical engineers are in the grip of unemployment. Biomedical Engineering student section is located since 2000 in Turkey; For the period 2020-2021, 30 universities are currently enrolling students and these universities have a total quota of 1.370. Biomedical Engineers have faced employment problems in recent years with the increase in the quotas of universities and the number of graduates. We request healthcare personnel to take part in health services in institutions and facilities affiliated to the Ministry of Health and to increase the employment of Biomedical Engineers. " It was said.

The press release of the Chamber of Electrical Engineers Ankara Branch is as follows; “The right to health and obtaining qualified health care is a fundamental human right protected by international law and Article 56 of our Constitution. The "right to health" is the right to access and use the facilities and conditions necessary to achieve the goal of healthy individuals and society. The “right to health”, as with other human rights, imposes three levels of responsibility on governments: respect, protection and fulfillment.

The rapid privatization of Health Services by the government has resulted in the payment of public resources to private companies through PPPs through city hospitals, and citizens who want to receive qualified health services with the incentives given to private hospitals have to pay additional costs. The future of our citizens, who are left at the mercy of private hospitals, is also mortgaged with long-term contracts.

However, in addition to all healthcare professionals (such as doctors, nurses, health officials, emergency medical technicians), Biomedical Engineers also have an important position in the fulfillment and uninterrupted maintenance of healthcare services despite all adverse conditions. Graduates of this department, which gave its first graduates in 2003 in our country, have been working for qualified health services all over our country with more than 17 graduates after 6000 years.

Biomedical Engineers; He is trained to design, manufacture, develop, operate, manage, maintenance, repair and calibration of medical devices in accordance with the needs and interact with other sciences with the training he receives. Biomedical Engineering student section is located since 2000 in Turkey; For the period 2020-2021, 30 universities are currently enrolling students and these universities have a total quota of 1.370. Biomedical Engineers have faced employment problems in recent years with the increase in the quotas of universities and the number of graduates.

The role of the Ministry of Health in the provision of healthcare services in our country is great and our colleagues are in charge of the management of health technologies, which is one of the main areas of work in the provision of this service. According to the Ministry of Health Provincial Organization Staff Standards and the Directive on Working Procedures and Principles, the standards related to the staff; the population served, population density, the services planned to be provided, the geographical size of the service area, the number of beds, type of institution, etc. It is determined by considering the criteria. It is seen that the employment of Biomedical Engineers planned according to this directive is insufficient. And it is known that there is still no planning in clinical engineering in many institutions and organizations.

When the Court of Accounts reports of recent years are examined, regarding medical devices in institutions and facilities affiliated with the Ministry of Health:

• It is not possible to use some of the medical devices according to the physician's findings and the medical devices are not of sufficient quality and quantity,
• Requirements for medical devices are not prepared rationally in tender processes,
• Technical specifications for medical devices are not regulated in detail,
• The type and number of medical devices and equipment specified in the contract and its annexes are not available in the health facility,
• The Material Resources Management System does not produce reliable data that will serve as a basis for counting, and some hospitals' movable inventories are not registered in MKYS,
• In MKYS inquiries, there are 10 biomedical durable movables with a unit price below 32.282 TL,
• Planning is not compatible with the needs and physical conditions of some public hospitals in the medical device purchase process,
• The medical consumables and laboratory materials in the warehouses are out of date due to the healthy need planning (a)

has been determined. These findings reveal the need and necessity of Biomedical Engineers in institutions and facilities affiliated to the Ministry of Health. In addition, it is known that health personnel are directly assigned in the fields of stock management of medical devices.

Biomedical Engineer employment; It is very important in terms of planning related services and combating the pandemic in order to save on manpower and financial resources and increase productivity. Considering the issues mentioned in the reports of the Court of Accounts; We would like to emphasize that the job should be given to the competent person in order to provide effective, efficient and quality health services in line with the targets.

In the light of all these information and evaluations, we request healthcare personnel to take part in health services and increase the employment of Biomedical Engineers in institutions and facilities affiliated to the Ministry of Health.