Evaluation of Turkey’s Healthcare System Performance in COVID-19 Pandemic Period

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of Turkey’s Health System during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Turkey among 656 people using a questionnaire. STATA 14.0 statistical software package was used for analysing the data. Frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test and one-way analysis of variance test were used. The participants’ Healthcare System Performance Evaluation Scale total score mean [Formula: see text] = 3.60 ± 0.6 in the sub-dimension of ‘Safe and Security’ [Formula: see text] = 3.63 ± 0.8, in the sub-dimension of ‘Transparency’ [Formula: see text] = 3.15 ± 1.1, in the sub-dimension ‘Accessibility’ [Formula: see text] = 3.79 ± 0.9, in the sub-dimension ‘Affordability’ [Formula: see text] = 3.83 ± 0.8 was determined. The Healthcare System Performance Evaluation Scale and a sub-dimension of this scale, accessibility, scores of them are high and differed statistically by age. The affordability sub-scale score was statistically different from income groups ( F = 6.47; p < .05). Although the performance of the general healthcare system is high, it was seen that the scores regarding the transparency of the information shared during COVID-19 were partially lower than other dimensions.