Abstract:

Health Transformation Program (HTP), which is the latest and the most radical step in the transformation of health care services in Turkey, has been in progress since 2003. Besides its effects on the clinical aspects, HTP has brought about serious changes regarding the socio-economic, political, administrative, conceptual and cultural aspects of health care services. This paper aims at analyzing Health Transformation Program from within political science and public administration perspective. It focuses on the attempts targeting organizationalset-up (towards decentralization)andfinancial set-up of the health care system; as it draws upon the thesis that these two are the main targets of the transformation process and that all the above mentioned critical changes emerge from the transformations realized in these two areas. In addition to this, in its efforts to explain the transformation brought about by the HTP, the paper underlines the importance of adopting the hybrid model approachand itdraws attention to the similarities between the HTP and the National Health Service (NHS) of England.

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