Patients' and their relatives' rights which we believe is complementary to basic human rights is one of the most important aspects of the "health right". It is all of our job to ensure that these rights are known, demanded, applied, defended and protected. It is on the 3^rd anniversary of "Patients' Rights Day" that we are hoping to attract our nation's attention to this important issue as we did last year.

In the year 2001 our world is facing serious issues socially, politically and economically; and our nation is also severely influenced. The problems that touch a human-being and his/her life, has even immensified as a direct result of the economic crisis our country is going through. The current situation is still the same in intensity. It is the public's main duty to allocate sufficient resources and facilities in health services, however, it does not, and this wounds our society deeply. The ever increasing inflation rate has caused an increase in the diagnosis and treatment expenses; and all the citizens of this country along with even those who are under social security are faced with violations of their patients' rights especially the right that states "the right for accessing and benefiting from a health service" which was directly caused by this.

Although some organizations had responded positively it is quite hard for us to say that not all public administrators -including all their organizations have responded since the day HAYAD was established. It is impossible to conceive the indifference of the governmental organizations in relation with the Patients' Rights Day.

While wishing for more sensitivity from the official authorities it should be considered only natural to expect them to develop relevant actions complying with the "Patients' Rights Bill" that had been produced in 1998. Still currently, Patients' Right Information Units are not established in all of the health institutions. The health personnel working in these institutions are still not wearing the ID tags on their official uniforms eventhough it is legally required.

A patient whose right has been violated cannot facilitate his rights through legal channels because of a new law that postpones punishment and so, even the right to look for our rights has become unusable.

All because of these reasons we have not been able to proceed in the past year.

This situation is also affecting the motivation and goodwill of people who are doing their best as volunteers. Despite all these, HAYAD's vounteers had been able to pull through this year as well as the previous one.

We are fully aware of the importance of our duty as HAYAD. We also think that this duty does not only belong to us. For this reason, our slogan, "RIGHT NOW, FOR EVERYONE!", is today a word that is to be said and defended even in more and more emphasis.

The activities we have brought together depite limited resources in this year had been passed on to the public by the help of the sensitive press and media, and more and more people began talking about these rights, and those who thought or realized their rights are violated began doing more about this. Despite the immense magnitude of the problems because of the scope of Human and Patient Rights itself, increasing number of complaints and applications to the Medical Chamber is a good and important indicator to evaluate that more and more people are becoming aware of their rights.

Asides from public awareness, just like the right for demanding a right, in oder for patients' rights bill to work, cooperation of the main actors of this issue is a necessity. The most important ones of these actors are the government and the official authorities. We, as the voluntary organizations, would like to express our wish for the development and advancement of this cooperation with the emphasis of our belief and respect for democracy and think that this is a "MUST"!

As a volunteer HAYAD will carry on with its mission as its duty along with pointing out to the public any goal accomplished as well as the ones not accomplished. Under the light of all the above evaluation we would like to emphasize what we have stated last year by underlining it as follows:

We, the people who demand health and our lost health rights are fully aware that we all are in this together - the health personnel and the patient hand in hand for the solution. Once again, on another day of October 26 as the Patients' Rights Day while we share the facts, we are repeating our sole wish for the existence of the application of Patients' and Patients' Relatives' Rights with all its aspects.