It was revealed that the members of the gang, allegedly led by Fırat Sarı, who bought the newborn intensive care units of many private hospitals in Istanbul in order to run them, acted in cooperation with the staff of the 112-emergency call centre and transferred the emergency infant patients to the newborn intensive care units of the private hospitals they had previously agreed with, causing their deaths and reaping unfair profits.
In the indictment prepared by the public prosecutor's office, a total of 177 years and 6 months to 589 years and 9 months imprisonment was requested for the suspects on charges of "intentional homicide through reckless conduct", "qualified fraud", "establishment of an organisation to commit a crime" and "falsification of official documents".
PROSECUTOR THREATENED
While the public prosecutor was conducting this investigation, 12 people were detained by gendarmerie teams in a separate investigation for threatening to kill him and harm his family if some suspects were not released. While 4 people were released, 5 out of 8 suspects were arrested and 3 of them were placed under judicial control.
While the licences of the hospitals involved in the scandal were revoked, new ones were added to the scandal. While similar allegations spread from different provinces of Anatolia, the indictment stated that the suspects were informed in advance about the inspections to be carried out in the hospitals and that a baby was put to sleep with heavy narcotics.
FORMER MINISTER'S HOSPITAL ON THE LIST
The names of 19 private hospitals where the gang operated in an organised way have been revealed. Former Health Minister Mehmet Müezzinoğlu's hospital, the private Avcılar Hospital, is on the list included in the police summary.
WE WILL NOT GIVE YOU THE DOCUMENTS, COMPLAIN TO WHOMEVER YOU WANT'.
The baby of Kamil Tan, a citizen living in Sakarya, was born at the Private B. Hospital in Adapazarı on 28 November 2018. Tan was told that his baby would have to stay in an incubator for a while and that this was a routine procedure. Tan explained the procedure as follows:
About 10 hours later, he was taken by ambulance to Kocaeli Private A. Hospital, where they said he would be transferred to a hospital with a newborn intensive care unit. At that time, we were told 'There is nothing to be afraid of, it is a routine procedure'. When we arrived at the hospital, we were told 'your baby is going to die'. We spent two nights in the private A. Hospital. The doctor said that the baby's condition worsened at certain intervals throughout the night and we were told that the problem was diagnosed as pulmonary hypertension due to lung development. Although there was no hope for a final treatment, in the morning they asked us to pay about TL 3,500 for nitric oxide gas treatment, which is not covered by the Social Security Institution (SGK). Although they said they would issue a bill, they never did. Later that day, when the doctor was found, he was transferred to the private G.Y. Hospital for the operation. Here, on 30 November, my baby died a few hours later. After the funeral, when I went to the head doctor's office to ask for my baby's treatment records, he told me that I could get them. The doctor next to him then asked for a break and when I returned to the room after 5 minutes, I was told 'we do not give out records, go and complain to whoever you want'. As a result, they did not give me any information.
PUBLIC PROSECUTOR DECIDES NOT TO PROSECUTE
There was negligence in the death of my baby. We lost our baby who looked healthy when he was born and the nurse said 'he is tired, we will just put him to rest' before we could hold him. Tan filed a criminal complaint with the Sakarya Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. But the prosecutor decided not to press charges.
ALLEGATIONS OF 'FAKE EPICRISIS' REPORT IN ANTALYA
On 20 September 2017, at the age of 33 weeks, Suna Serik gave birth by caesarean section at the Private M.P. Hospital in Antalya. Baby Serik, who was born weighing 2kg 120g, was said to be healthy at birth, but was admitted to the newborn intensive care unit later that day. Father Sancak Serik said the following:
Suddenly, Doctor M.G. came to us and said that our baby would be taken to the newborn intensive care unit. But we were told that our baby was healthy when he was born. But the epicrisis report said that our baby was intubated from the moment he was born. The report also said that my baby was getting worse every day and remained in intensive care until 3 October. But my baby was never put on the machine. Last week he was taken to the discharge ward. On the morning of 3 October, I was suddenly called and told that my baby had died. My baby died at 01.00 in the night. But they told us in the morning. After I lost my baby, I filed a complaint with the Antalya Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, but unfortunately, they decided not to prosecute. I will ask for the case to be reopened after the news of the last few days. There is negligence in the death of my child. No one else's child should have to go through this.
SCANDALS NOT LIMITED TO BABIES
However, the scandal was not limited to newborn babies. It was alleged that elderly patients admitted to state and municipal hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic were transferred to the intensive care units of contracted private hospitals, and that the saturations of these patients were deliberately kept low and their hospital stays prolonged. It was also alleged that bedridden patients in Istanbul were irregularly referred to private hospitals with dialysis units.
ANOTHER DIALYSIS GANG ALLEGATION
It was alleged that bedridden dialysis patients in Istanbul were referred to private hospitals and the SGK was defrauded. Journalist Fatih Ergin, claimed that bedridden patients in Istanbul were irregularly referred to private hospitals with dialysis units.
Ergin said that the patient's history and epicrisis report were not taken into account in the referring private hospital, and that some patients' files were written as 'connected to dialysis' when they were not connected to dialysis. Ergin said, "They refer especially bedridden patients to dialysis in an irregular way and defraud the SGK.
HEALTH SPENDING INCREASED WITH PRIVATISATION
Total health expenditure in Turkey increased by 619% in 10 years. In addition, hospital spending appears to have increased by a total of 630%. Outpatient spending shows a nominal increase of 496 per cent from 2013 to 2022. According to 2002 data, 774 of the 1,156 hospitals belong to the Ministry of Health, 50 to university hospitals and 271 to private hospitals. After 2016, there are 61 hospitals in the 'other' category, which is zero. By 2022, the number of Ministry of Health hospitals in Turkey will be 915, while the number of medical faculties will increase to 68. However, the number of private hospitals, whose growth turned negative in 2020, will increase to 572 in 2022. The share of private hospitals in the total will increase to 37%.
While the share of private hospitals in the number of newborn intensive care beds was 46% in 2012, the increase does not slow down except in the pandemic process in 2020, when it reaches 54% in 2022.
TTB HEALTH TRANSFORMATION BROUGHT DEATH AGAIN
In a statement on the newborn scandal, the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) said: 'As the Turkish Medical Association, we stand by the families, babies, ethical colleagues and health workers who are victims of the greed that has entered our health system with the Health Transformation Programme.
It is clear that there is a serious lack of supervision in this incident, and we would like to announce that the officials of the Directorate of Health who are responsible for implementation and supervision have neglected their duties, that they are responsible for the late discovery of this scheme, which seems to have been going on for years, and that they should be held accountable before the law, and that we will follow up on this.
The statement stressed that the private health institutions and administrators involved in the incident should be punished, saying: 'We would like to stress that this serious incident is not the result of the involvement of a few health workers and hospital administrators who lack conscience and morality, nor is it of a nature that can be overlooked and compensated by punishing these people. It is clear that we are facing a serious systemic problem that goes far beyond this and the bankruptcy of the health policy that has been pursued in our country for years. What has happened has undeniably revealed a fact that we have been warning the public and the authorities about for years: that the policies implemented in accordance with the Health Transformation Programme are not for the benefit of the public and have devastating consequences for the health system. The Health Transformation Programme, which trivialises health care, emphasises quantity over quality, turns hospitals into businesses and patients into customers, and subjects’ health to the rules of the market, has collapsed our health system. Policies that harm public health, the values of medicine and health workers, that lead to the squandering of the country's resources for the benefit of a handful of people, and that lead to the trampling of human values, as we have seen in this latest incident, must be abandoned as soon as possible.
Yusuf Karadaş
Yücel Özdemir
Ceren Sözeri