New security measures taken at hospital doors: Health Ministry

ANKARA

In a bid to detect illegal substances or objects that could endanger the safety of a patient or a doctor, “door security systems” has begun to be installed in hospitals, the Health Ministry has announced.

“We have urgent work to be done for the safety of our health institutions, starting from the entrance of hospitals. Security systems have been installed on the doors of 24 more hospitals,” Koca said on his Twitter account.

“The system will be quickly rolled out across the country,” the minister added.

The system was implemented in line with the instruction given by Health Minister Fahrettin Koca four months ago to increase security measures in hospitals.

Following the murder of Ekrem Karakaya, a doctor in the Central Anatolian province of Konya, on July 6, nearly a thousand doctors and health workers came together in the hospital garden to protest against the armed attack, with some demanding faster and stricter action to prevent violence against health care professionals.

The Turkish Medical Association held a two-day strike across the country over the killing of Karakaya.

Hacı Mehmet Akçay shot and killed Karakaya with a pistol on July 6. Akçay, who allegedly committed the murder because he blamed Karakaya for the death of his mother, Kezban Akçay, who died of a heart attack a month ago, committed suicide with the same weapon after the attack.