Social Democracy Party (TDP) parliamentary candidate and psychiatrist Prof. Mehmet Çakıcı has said the country's real agenda is public access to healthcare and medicine, not internal party rankings, commenting on disputes over the National Unity Party's (UBP) candidate ranking vote and Health Minister Hakan Dinçyürek's announcement that he will resign.
Noting that numerous objections were filed in the UBP vote, a recount was ordered and ballot boxes were kept under police guard, Çakıcı said: "Today, while police guard ballot boxes, our patients are going from pharmacy to pharmacy to find the medicine they use. Political rankings may change, ministers may come and go, but health services cannot be disrupted for even a single day." He stressed that the Health Ministry is not merely a political office, and that health policy, medicine supply and service planning must continue uninterrupted regardless of who holds the post.
Speaking as a hospital administrator and physician, Çakıcı said hospitals, not just patients, cannot always obtain the medicines they need from drug wholesalers. "There is a prescription but no medicine; there are patients but no plan. This is no longer an isolated shortfall but a serious supply problem directly threatening public health," he said, adding that the state's duty is not only to issue prescriptions but to ensure patients can obtain the prescribed drugs on time.
He warned the problem could soon affect hospitals' treatment capacity and the continuity of health services. Doctors, he said, should not be forced to choose treatments based on what is available on the market rather than what is scientifically best, and noted that abruptly stopping or frequently switching medication in chronic conditions can cause new side effects and relapses.
Arguing that medicine shortages are "not fate" but the result of a lack of foresight, poor planning and mismanagement, Çakıcı said consumption, stock depletion and arrival of new supplies can all be calculated in advance. He called for at least a three-month safety stock of essential and regularly used medicines, and proposed a shared digital tracking and early warning system covering state and private hospitals, drug wholesalers and pharmacies.
Çakıcı urged the UBP to set aside its ranking and position disputes and focus on people's real problems. "If measures are not taken today, today's medicine shortage will become tomorrow's treatment crisis. Without medicine, a prescription is just a piece of paper," he said.
