According to a recent official notification on health practices released on February 6, emergency health services in private hospitals are to be charged up to 200 percent extra payment in Turkey.
Free of charge emergency health services in private hospitals are limited to 24 hours. The patients will be transferred to public hospitals after 24 hours. The policlinics at public hospitals will be open "in shifts" until 23.00 p.m. due to the emergency department overcrowding. This overcrowding results from the fact that the patients are charged contribution fee for examination at the clinics, thus resulting in an overcrowding at the emergency services that used to be free of charge before the new regulation.
This new regulation is incompatible with the current law on ambulatory treatment. Before this new regulation, private hospitals were not allowed to impose extra charges for ambulatory treatment and otherwise were fined for it.
Private hospitals are also exempt from providing a document on extra charges for ambulatory treatment. This prevents the patients from demonstrating extra charges s/he paid and ask for a sanction against the hospital management.
