A major healthcare scandal has emerged in Istanbul, where 47 suspects, including 22 currently in custody, are accused of exploiting newborn patients for financial gain by collaborating with Turkey’s 112 Emergency Service to direct infants to private hospitals. The suspects allegedly extended hospital stays and exaggerated medical conditions to inflate claims to the Social Security Institution (SGK), similar to the UK’s NHS.
An indictment from the Bakirkoy Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office details how the group worked with emergency medical services to funnel newborns into private hospitals, prescribing unnecessary treatments and extended stays to inflate SGK claims.
Notably, one of the implicated hospitals, Ozel Avcılar Hospital, is owned by Mehmet Muezzinoglu, who served as Turkey’s Minister of Health from 2013 to 2016 under the ruling AKP cabinet.
According to the indictment financial gains over the fraud were shared among the suspects who manipulated hospital stays and misdiagnosed newborns to significantly increase profits, tragically resulting in the deaths of some infants. The indictment also reveals that the suspects’ phone conversations were recorded, containing statements that demonstrate their brutal practices.
The prosecutor conducting the investigation has received death threats, prompting a separate investigation into these threats.
The scandal has sparked intense criticism of healthcare privatisation in Turkey, with many arguing that these public-private sector agreements have created opportunities for abuse, suggesting a wider pattern of corruption and financial exploitation within the healthcare system. This has tragically resulted in the deaths of patients, including even healthy infants.