‘30 pct of emergency department visits not urgent in Türkiye’

ANTALYA

Thirty out of 100 patients who visit emergency departments of hospitals do not have a genuine urgent health condition in Türkiye, resulting in a staggering 140 million annual emergency department visits in the country, which is significantly higher than figures in Europe and the U.S., says a senior member of the Emergency Medicine Foundation of Türkiye (TÜAT).

"In a bid to reduce this high rate of unnecessary visits to the emergency department, we need to enhance health literacy. Patients with conditions that do not require immediate attention, such as mild back pain or the common cold, need to be aware that they should not come to the emergency department," Semih Korkut stated during his speech at a conference in the southern province of Antalya on Nov. 6.

Noting that during his career, he has witnessed even couples seeking in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment resorting to emergency departments in Türkiye, Korkut said awareness campaigns in Europe and the United States have led to significantly lower numbers of such cases in those regions.

One of the significant reasons for the disparity in the patient load in emergency departments is that in Turkish hospitals, patients seeking services in these departments typically wait for much less time than those in Europe or the U.S., Korkut noted.

"In Europe, the waiting time is a minimum of four hours, but it can extend up to 12 hours. Moreover, if the patient's condition is not genuinely urgent, they may be required to pay a substantial bill. I cannot provide a specific waiting time for Türkiye, but in our hospital, on a busy day, the waiting time is generally about 20-25 minutes. The results of blood tests take approximately two and a half hours," Korkut explained.

"Additionally, in Europe and the U.S., about 5 percent of patients who visit the emergency department are what we call 'green patients,' meaning they do not require urgent intervention. In Türkiye, the percentage of green patients visiting the emergency department is around 25-30 percent."