Treat 2018 Turkish medical tourism data with caution

The Turkish Ministry of Health figures for the first half of 2018 shows 178,000 international patients. Caution is needed in analysing this data; not all international patients are medical tourists.

Data released by the Turkish Ministry of Health shows that, in the first half of 2018, there were almost 178,000 international patients. 67% went to private hospitals, 24% to public hospitals and 9% to university hospitals. The 2018 estimate is around 350,000 but that is all international patients, not just medical tourists.

There is a question as to how many of these visitors were actually medical tourists, as hospitals treating international patients have to provide numbers on international patients, not just medical tourists.

The Turkish government brought in the Regulation on International Health Tourism and Tourist Health in 2017.

The law sets out minimum service delivery standards for medical tourism and rules on the authorisation and supervision of healthcare organisations and intermediaries in medical tourism.

The law also applies to those who have emergency health services requirements during their stay in Turkey as a tourist, other foreign patients who are not medical tourists, and refugees. The numbers also include:

  • People brought to Turkey from other countries by non-government organisations for purposes of treatment.
  • Patients brought to Turkey for purposes of treatment from the Balkans and Turkic Republics by non-government organisations approved by the Ministry of Health, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA), or the Prime Ministry Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities.
  • Citizens of certain countries who are entitled to receive medical assistance under Social Security Contracts in accordance with the international agreement signed by the Republic of Turkey.
  • Citizens of the Republic of Turkey.
  • Persons who come to Turkey for treatment under international bilateral cooperation agreements.
  • People who come to Turkey for education, training, or courses purposes, and their dependents for the duration of the education.
  • Those under temporary protection, refugees, persons who hold the status of asylum applicant or refuge applicant, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and victims of human trafficking.
  • Foreigners of Turkish descent who present documentation of their Turkish descent.

Those who receive emergency healthcare services upon being brought in by law enforcement officers as part of a judicial case are exempted from the implementation of the Regulation.

Therefore, foreigners who are temporarily residing in Turkey for meetings, congresses, commercial or tourism purposes may benefit from the health services provided in public, university or private health institutions in emerging diseases and under emergency conditions during the time of their stay.

The law requires healthcare providers and medical travel agencies to obtain international health tourism authorisation certificates to operate in Turkey.

As well as medical treatment, diagnostic, therapeutic and rehabilitative healthcare services, as well as traditional and complementary medicine applications may be provided at approved international health tourism facilities authorised by the Ministry of Health.

It is compulsory for international health tourism health facilities to establish an international health tourism unit for international health tourists’ admission, registration, diagnosis, treatment, billing, discharge, interpreting and coordination of operations and transactions related to intermediary institutions. In international health tourism units, a doctor/specialist must be appointed as the health tourism unit supervisor and report to the authority. Depending on potential number of health tourists, a health professional can also be employed as the international health tourism assistant unit supervisor in the facility.