People-Centered Health Policies in Turkey

Health services have shown significant developments throughout the world in the last century. In addition, the status and outcomes of diseases are substantially changed. In the past, infectious diseases were the most critical health problems, but today, chronic diseases have taken their place. Until the Second World War, health systems focused on eradicating diseases. Afterward, with the expansion of the definition of health by the World Health Organization, this situation changed, and the concept of patient-centered health care emerged. The idea of patient-centered health care was put forward as an essential dimension of quality health care in the late 1970s, but it could not see the expected value. Recent changes in medicine and health systems introduced a patient-centered approach instead of a disease- and physician-centered approach. However, the current global changes emphasize the necessity of providing health services with sensitive and people-centered systems. This chapter has examined people-centered health practices, which are in demand worldwide, from the perspective of health policies in Turkey.