- Recep Akdağ
Recep Akdağ is the minister of health of
Turkey , a position he has held since 2002, and Member of Parliament forErzurum .Biography
Born in
Erzurum in 1960, he graduated from Faculty of Medicine,Atatürk University going on to an academic career in the field of medicine. He worked as a lecturer in pediatrics and deputy chief physician of Atatürk University's Research Hospital before being elected to Parliament in 2002.As health minister as well as the day-to-day running of the public health system he has had to deal with a number of issues including:
* major reforms of the public health system to cut bureacracy and increase efficiency, for example allowing public health patients to be treated privately at the state's expense, thus relieving the strain on state hospitals.
* successfully bringing the cost of pharmaceuticals in Turkey down to EU norms
* thebird flu scare of 2006, which he managed calmly
* calls for a government initiative onbirth control andfamily planning to bring average family size down to EU norms. This plan has been shelved, and as the minister has six children himself perhaps this is not surprising [Milliyet newspaper online - [http://www.milliyet.com/2006/06/15/siyaset/siy07.html "Recep Akdağ's speech"] ] .Akdağ is married with six children, and he is one of the cabinet ministers whose wife wears a
headscarf , seen by many as a symbol of political Islam. [Haberler.com - [http://www.haberler.com/kabinede-de-turban-azaldi-haberi "Headscarf related news"] /]References
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