INDICATORS

TURKEY
Data availability by Country Report: 37% of ECHI shortlist indicators are available
in international data sources. The ECHI shortlist sections for which there are most data
missing are Health Care and Health Status.
Data availability by ECHIM Survey: 73% of ECHIM Survey indicators are available
at a national level. According to national information most of the data are from registers
(cancer, primary and in-patient care, accidents) whose quality has to be improved. In
addition data from HIS and HES should be available. At present, Turkey is not a regular
member state of the European Union but of OECD and WHO. This may partly explain
the lack of data for Turkey in the Eurostat database.
Data availability in European context: Data availability in Turkey is below European
average. Most data come from registers. There are no nationally representative HES
data available, but according to national information such data should exist. The
development of a strategy for the delivery of health data to European institutions could
improve the availability of Turkish health data in international databases considerably.
However, there should be more data available that could be submitted to international
databases.
Overall situation of data sources: The Turkish Ministry of Health (MoH;
www.saglik.gov.tr) is the main holder for health data in Turkey. By order of the ministry
the Turkish Office for Statistics (TURKSTAT; www.turkstat.gov.tr) performs HISs. The
Health Interview Survey 2008 has been implemented in 2008. This survey has been
adopted from EHIS. Other topic specific data collections are under the responsibility
of other ministries and institutions (e.g. accidents/injuries at the Ministry of Internal
Affairs; health insurance at the Social Security Organisation; health expenditures at
TURKSTAT; work related health, accidents at work at Ministry of Labour and Social
Security). Health Surveys are also performed by universities.
Health reporting: Health reporting is under the responsibility of the MoH. Together
with the School of Public Health a national public health report has been published in
2004 and is available online in English. Also, Health at a Glance Turkey 2007 has been
published in 2007 and is available online in English.
Main problems: Like in other European countries, the development of a reliable and
sustainable information system for public health is challenged by the fragmentation
of the national health system. Lack of manpower (qualified and trained) and lack of
coordination at national level seem to be the main problems at the moment. On the
other hand, Assessment of Health Information System Project which was implemented
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