In light of a panicked global atmosphere and accusations against major countries and their systems of failure to confront the new Corona virus epidemic, the question has become centered around the efforts that Türkiye has made to strengthen and improve its health sector. But in this exceptional situation, the Turkish case in this field proves that it is an example to follow, through its tireless endeavor to develop this sector and make it capable of challenging the crises that may afflict the country. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened on Monday, May 25, 2020, the Medical City in Basaksehir, which is the largest medical complex in the city of Istanbul and the third in Turkey. It includes 6 buildings built on an area of one million square metres, and will provide its natural services to 23,600 patients, with a number of beds of 3,102, including 520 for intensive care, 90 operating rooms, and 1,662 residence rooms. This medical institution, built on an area of one million square meters in the Basaksehir area, west of Istanbul, will operate with a capacity that can provide service to 32,700 patients and visitors daily, and it is equipped with 2,640 beds. Work on establishing this medical city, which is also called “Ikitili City Hospital,” began in 2016, and about 6,000 workers from various sectors of engineering, building, extension, construction, and others participated in its construction.
Strong sector
The health sector in Türkiye consists, of course, of medical institutions and buildings, in addition to medical staff including doctors, nurses, and auxiliary bodies, in addition to the state’s general health system. The Turkish state has worked to develop all of these elements, not only by increasing numbers and quantities, but also by qualitatively developing human resources and raising the efficiency of buildings, institutions, and administrative systems. The health sector has remained a top priority for the Turkish government over the past eighteen years. It increased its public spending on it from 18.7 billion Turkish liras in 2002 to 116.7 billion liras in 2016, and then allocated about 188.6 billion liras ($32 billion) to spend on it in the general budget for the current year. Thus, the Turkish state has increased the allocations for the health sector in the state’s general budget from 11.3% in 2002 to 17.2% in 2020, and of course the increases in this spending were directed towards the Turkish White Army with its various components. The number of Turkish public hospitals increased from 1,156 in 2002 until it reached 1,520 in 2016. The number of hospital beds also increased from 164,000 in 2002 to 232,000 in 2017, while the number of intensive care rooms in 2017 reached 36,609 rooms, after it was 2,214 rooms in 2002. And recently The Turkish Minister of Health announced that there are 100,000 rooms ready to become intensive care rooms.
Giant complexes
The Turkish government has adopted the construction of giant hospital complexes and medical cities, which has made Türkiye an important destination for medical tourism from different countries of the world. Indeed, many of them have been opened in recent years in various Turkish cities, and the combined capacity of these medical cities reaches 12,100 beds, and they include 2,831 clinics, 1,999 intensive care beds, and 410 operating rooms, and they use the latest technologies. Among these giant complexes is the Medical City in Adana Province, which was opened in 2017, and which provides treatment services to about 16,000 people daily through a staff of 5,000 people, in addition to containing 1,550 beds. Likewise, Bilkent Hospital in the capital, Ankara, which opened in 2019, is considered the largest hospital in Europe and the third largest in the world, as it includes 3,633 beds, 131 operating rooms, in addition to 904 outpatient clinics. It is also distinguished by its daily capacity to receive 30,000 patients and 8,000 emergency cases, and has the largest medical laboratory in the country, in addition to two areas for landing and taking off of helicopters.
Great progress
The matter did not stop at building hospitals, as the state expanded the construction of universities and focused on establishing medical and nursing colleges, which helped it raise the number of Turkish doctors per 100,000 people from 138 doctors in 2002 to 184 in 2016. Recently, the Turkish President stated: “We have a huge medical army that includes 165,000 doctors, 205,000 nurses, and 360,000 support employees.” The state also announced the availability of 35 One thousand new jobs in the health sector. The Turkish government has also completely structured the health insurance system, making only one institution responsible for the health system in the country. The new system allows citizens and residents to benefit from health centers and government and private hospitals through their health insurance in all fields and specialties. In addition to the social security system that enables everyone to obtain free or low-cost health care, each neighborhood also has its own dispensary, called the Family Health Center, which provides free initial medical care for everyone, especially children and women, and all of this is under the supervision of the Turkish Ministry of Health.
High specifications
The new medical city is connected to a modern road and transportation network that avoids traffic through crowded internal neighborhoods and is directly connected to the rapid transportation lines leading to the new Istanbul airport and the parallel sea canal in which construction work was halted in light of the outbreak of the new Corona virus pandemic, which gives a good opportunity for ambulances to reach urgent cases in a short time. It is also connected to the transport lines leading to the Anatolia region via the Sultan Yavuz Selim Bridge, which connects Istanbul to its Asian neighbourhood, while the people of the city’s neighborhoods will be able to reach the hospital via a special “Metro” train line that was established for this purpose. According to the Turkish Ministry of Health, the Medical City is the largest medical institution isolated from earthquakes in the world, and it has been provided with 2,040 seismic isolators that work efficiently and with very high specifications without stopping, even in the face of violent earthquakes and earthquakes. The Ministry said that the focus on providing the building with a special earthquake resistance system is due to its anticipation of the high seismic activity in Türkiye and in the city of Istanbul.
Diversity of services
According to data from the Turkish Ministry of Health, the new medical city consists of three hospitals: the main hospital with 2,354 beds, the physical therapy and rehabilitation hospital with 200 beds, and the psychiatric hospital with 128 beds. The main hospital consists of six departments: General Medicine, which includes 469 beds, the Cardiovascular Diseases Department, which consists of 327 beds, Neurology and Orthopedics, which includes 311 beds, the Pediatrics Department, which includes 521 beds, Gynecology, which includes 359 beds, and the Oncology Department, which includes 367 beds. The hospital will also employ more than 10,000 employees, including 4,300 doctors, nurses, and specialists from supportive medical professions, 4,050 service employees, and 810 administrative employees, all of whom will be contracted through the government employment system, while technical and logistical services will be assigned to the private sector. The spread of the Corona virus in the Turkish states was accelerating, and this was supported by the state’s transparency in announcing cases of infection, and the huge number of daily tests that the state conducts for early detection, as well as the policies of the Turkish Ministry of Health in investigating those who have been in contact with the infected and isolating them. Despite the large numbers of infected people, the country’s health system was not overwhelmed, thanks to the strong Turkish health sector, which accelerated the state’s ability to contain the crisis and control the spread of the virus in a quick time.
