Istanbul prosecutors prosecuted 47 people, including doctors and nurses, for intentionally prolonging the hospital stay or transferring newborn babies unnecessarily for profit.
This is considered one of Türkiye’s biggest medical scandals in recent years. The incident caused the deaths of 10 infants. Based on the indictment, the Ministry of Health closed 9 private hospitals after the investigation. A total of 19 medical facilities were involved.
According to a 1,399-page indictment filed in an Istanbul court last week, the suspects are accused of forming a criminal group to transfer newborns to several private hospitals and receive money from the country’s social insurance agency. Turkey.
Two suspects are on the hotline looking for children who need to be hospitalized for intensive treatment. Then, they coordinate the children to affiliated facilities. Here, children have to be treated with inappropriate methods, sometimes completely deviating from the regimen. Some children were taken to the neonatal unit, an environment prone to infection, and had to stay in the hospital longer than usual.
“The children became victims of negligence, did not receive adequate medical care, and their medicines were sold to others. 10 children died after being treated in these units,” the representative said. Istanbul prosecutor’s office said.
A doctor takes a newborn baby’s footprint to make a birth certificate at a private clinic in Ankara, Türkiye. Image: Reuters
The criminal gang’s goal is to “illegally profit from the insurance of the Turkish Social Security Institute (SGK) used for the transfer of newborn patients, not to improve the patient’s health condition.” “, the indictment stated. The group was even accused of inflating the medical records of some children, aiming to keep them in the hospital longer than expected to receive more money. Thanks to the above missions, the gang’s income has increased three to four times.
“My daughter stayed in the intensive care unit for three nights. After that, a doctor suggested transferring her to the hospital because ‘this is only a place for a one-month-old baby’. He threatened that my baby would die if she continued to lie down. The hospital fee at the new facility is 7,000 lira per night. My daughter needs to be hospitalized for two weeks,” said a mother whose child died in the incident.
Another patient’s family said he had to pay 35,000 liras while his child was in the hospital. Doctors said this is hospital fees and medical equipment purchases. The next morning, the doctors called him to the hospital and announced that his daughter had died.
According to the indictment, the leader of this criminal group is doctor Fırat Sarı, owner of Medisense Medical Services Company. This person rented the neonatal wards of several private hospitals in Istanbul to replicate the model of transferring pediatric patients. He assigned the nurse to introduce himself as a doctor, in order to deceive the patient’s family. During interrogation, the investigator confirmed that Sarı had been tried for his connection to the PKK medical crime organization.
Sarı’s criminal group had 47 people, including doctors, nurses, paramedics, ambulance drivers, and emergency switchboard workers. The suspects currently deny all accusations, saying they did not intentionally take the newborns to specific hospitals.