Türkiye unveils draft rules to combat violence against health care workers

ANKARA

Türkiye is preparing new regulations aimed at tackling violence against health care workers, introducing mandatory prevention programs, psychosocial support for victims and a legal assistance mechanism under a draft regulation issued by the Health Ministry.

The draft sets out new standards governing the rights of both patients and health care professionals, with a strong focus on improving workplace safety. Under the proposal, all health care institutions will be required to develop violence prevention programs and systematically record not only incidents of violence but also “near-miss” events — situations that did not result in violence but posed a serious risk.

Health care workers subjected to violence will be entitled to mandatory psychosocial support, while hospitals and medical facilities will be required to investigate every incident through root-cause analyses to identify underlying problems and prevent recurrence.

The draft also introduces a new support platform enabling health care professionals to request legal support following violent incidents. In addition, workers who experience physical assault, threats, verbal abuse or behavior that seriously endangers their own safety or that of colleagues will be able to request to withdraw from providing services under defined procedures.