42 thousand visitors to ‘Health Turkey’ in 5 months

The ‘Health Turkey’ application, which was launched under the coordination of the Health Services Joint Stock Company (USHAŞ), which was established under the Ministry of Health in order to promote health services and produce policies and strategies related to health services, and announced as the umbrella brand by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, It was put into service on November 1, 2022. Health Turkey, which aims to make Turkey a globally accepted brand in the field of international health services, to brand the services offered in the field of health, and to create more health tourism, attracted attention.

‘THE INCOME OF 36 BILLION TL IN 2022’

USHAŞ Academy’s project coordinator Dr. Ebru Aydın, stating that health tourism has become a developing sector in the world and Turkey has an important place in this sector, said, «The number of health tourism patients coming to Turkey is increasing. «When we look at our revenues, again, according to TUIK data, while the income from health tourism was 33 billion TL in 2021, it reached 36 billion TL in 2022 and we expect it to increase gradually,» he said.

‘170 HOSPITALS REGISTERED TO THE PORTAL’

Dr. Aydın said that tourists, who usually visit Turkey for health tourism, mostly apply for plastic and aesthetic surgery procedures, dental treatments, organ transplants, chemotherapy, oncological treatments, eye treatments, pediatric diseases and assisted reproductive treatments in the field of health services. Dr. Aydın said, «Health Turkey is actually an umbrella brand of international healthcare services. It was launched on October 31, 2022 by our Honorable President, and this umbrella brand actually has 5 main components. One of these 5 main components is the web portal called Health Turkey. This web portal It is actually the first official portal of international health services. Foreign patients abroad, when they want to receive health services from Turkey, can log in to Health Turkey’s web portal and from here, they can reach the treatment they want, the doctor they want with various search criteria, and make the treatment plan in our country. «There are 170 hospitals registered on the site. Since the day it was opened, that is, as of November 1, 2022, 42 thousand visits have been made. We expect it to increase even more,» he said.

‘WE ARE AMONG THE TOP 10 COUNTRIES’

Aydın said that one of the 5 main components of Health Turkey is the international call center serving foreign patients 24/7 in 6 languages, and the other is to bring health professionals together with qualified health professionals in Turkey who have a well-equipped and deep-rooted medical education and offer them the training they want. . Pointing out that another component is international representation and promotion activities, Aydın said, «In this regard, we bring together not only the public, but also the entire sector in the field of public-private health tourism or the entire sector in the field of international health services with business forums, health forums and fairs held abroad. and we have a study on providing various business areas from there to our sector. With these 5 main components, Health Turkey continues its work as a roof brand. It is developing, in the future, it will be able to be added under different headings in accordance with our policies in the field of international health. Health tourism in Turkey is actually one of the few in the world; the top ten He can easily enter the country,» he said.

Dr. Stating that they mostly receive patients from countries with geographical proximity, Aydın said, «But we have the potential to receive patients from all over the world. As a matter of fact, we actually receive patients from 234 countries for health tourism. This is a very high number. This means that from all over the world, from all continents. We can take patients. But as I said, our weight is mainly in the countries that are close and close geographically; North Africa region, Central Asia, Middle East and Turkic Republics, but there is Europe, America, England, too,» he said.