President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of Kartal Dr. Lütfi Kırdar City Hospital in Istanbul.

“The COVID-19 pandemic, which cost nearly 550 thousand lives across the world, has shown once again the importance of health and healthcare infrastructure,” President Erdoğan said.

“Many countries, including the most developed ones, have been caught unprepared by the outbreak,” President Erdoğan said. “Thanks to the measures we took and the methods we developed, we’re among the countries that survived the epidemic with the least loss of life.”

“Thanks to our inclusive and comprehensive social security system, our citizens have not faced hospital bills of hundreds of thousands of dollars as is the case in some countries. We have provided free of charge our citizens with all that is necessary to fight the disease from tests to diagnosis, from treatment to medicine. We have provided first-class medical service to all 83 million citizens of ours, regardless of their financial means, during this difficult period,” President Erdoğan said.

 “TURKISH-MADE MEDICAL PRODUCTS ARE INCREASINGLY ATTRACTING ATTENTION”

“Also, we have sent medical equipment and supplies to 138 countries regardless of their religion, language, race or region. We also produced respirators, developed by Turkish engineers and manufactured by Turkish companies. We are now exporting these devices. In addition to our own hospitals, Turkish-made respirators are being used in many continents from Brazil to Somalia. Turkish-made medical products are increasingly attracting attention. Our exemplary fight against COVID-19 has opened a new window of opportunity for Turkey in health tourism. We are determined to make Turkey a healthcare hub of three continents,” President Erdoğan said.

Source: https://www.tccb.gov.tr/en/news/542/120567/-we-are-determined-to-make-turkey-a-healthcare-hub-of-three-continents-

In his speech, President Erdoğan congratulated those who contributed in the hospital.

”We have built one of the largest of our city hospitals in Konya“, said Erdoğan and continued, “The initial planned capacity of this hospital was 838 beds. We saw that this capacity would not be enough for Konya and increased it to 1250.”

In his speech at the opening ceremony of Konya City Hospital, the Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca said that a robust healthcare system was the guarantee for a country’s future.

Koca pointed out that the hospital would be a hub for healthcare, health training and research and continued,”This hospital, which we think will meet an import need for Konya, has an indoor space of 421 thousand square meters and is equipped with 1250 beds, 49 high technology operating rooms and 240 intensive care beds. The capacity of its clinic is 334 patients at any given time. With the introduction of the city hospital, the other hospital started focusing on the pandemic, which relieved the burden on the city’s healthcare system.”

“The number of patients are going down”

Noting that the burden on hospitals across the country was increasing, Koca added, “The number of critical patients is also increasing. All of this requires sources and infrastructure as well as continuous care and service provision. As you know, there has been a significant increase in the number of patients in many parts of Anatolia, especially in Ankara and Konya, over the past month. For the past month, we have conducted regional evaluations in various provinces. Our entire healthcare workers have been able to stop this rising trend. We have seen that with proper measures in place, the numbers decrease shortly. We have the power to overcome this pandemic. Together, as a nation, we can fight this.”

Source: https://www.saglik.gov.tr/EN,73669/konya-city-hospital-opens.html