President Erdoğan vows recruitment of tens of thousands of public health workers

ANKARA

The government has launched works to recruit 29,686 health workers in the public sector, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said.

“This year, we initiated the process to employ 29,689 new health workers in the public sector. First, 12,000 health personnel will be employed,” Erdoğan said late May 23 at an iftar dinner.

The president pointed at the new trend of European patients recently preferring Turkey for treatment.

“Europe is coming here. Scandinavian countries are sending patients here,” he said. The president noted that he tasked the health minister for the recruitment of vocational school health graduates in order to boost the demand for these schools.

He stressed the necessity to increase the number of nurses per patient and vowed there will be no void for these staff.

“We are trying to turn our country into a regional attraction center in health tourism,” Erdoğan said as Turkey reached a 550,000 foreign patient capacity annually in the health tourism sector.

“Western patients trust the Turkish doctors and the service here. Because our nurses and doctors are very kind, not arrogant,” he stated, stressing that Turkish doctors are well qualified too.

The government promotes the local production of health equipment as the import of those materials have a huge burden on the country’s budget.