The Ministry of Health, which is established in 1920, is the main government body responsible for health sector policy making, implementation of national health strategies through programs and direct provision of health services.
Ministry of Health is the major provider of primary and secondary health care, maternal health services, children’s and family planning services. It is essentially the only provider of preventive health services through an extensive network of health facilities (health centers and health posts) providing primary, secondary, and specialized in-patient and out-patient services.
Ministry of Health currently comprises nine general directorates:
- International Relations and European Union,
- Health Information Systems,
- Improvement of Health,
- Health Researches,
- Administrative Services,
- Emergency Health Services,
- Health Investments,
- Health Services, and
- Borders and Maritime Health.
The Ministry of Health and Overseas Development Assistance
Turkey concluded agreements on “Cooperation in Health and Medicine” with other countries, under which the Ministry of Health implements projects to transfer medical advances in the world to developing countries. In this context, Turkey provided training to 443 persons comprising 31 midwives, 50 nurses, 143 physicians and 219 health staff from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Côte d’Ivoire, Palestine, South Sudan, Georgia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritania, Nakhjavan, Uzbekistan, Somalia and Sudan.
In addition to delivery of training in Turkey, the Ministry of Health also deploys own physicians and Health staff overseas. Accordingly, 149 physicians and health staff were deployed in 2012 to provide various health services in Albania, Azerbaijan, Palestine, Guinea, Cameroon, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Yemen.
The following table gives a summary of activities engaged in 2012 by the Ministry of Health in the context of “Health Week Projects”.
The Ministry of Health also engages in emergency aid. The following examples relate to activities against hunger and drought in somalia:
- Deployment of 33 physicians and 83 health staff of Ministry’s own employees
- Treatment of 189,699 patients and surgical operations for 1,865 patients
- Donation of 50 tons of medical supplies and medicine
- Delivery of “NRP Practitioner and Trainer” training to a medical team of selected 17 persons, i.e. training on “Neonatal Resuscitation”, “Safe Maternity” and “Training Skills”
- Construction of a 200-bed hospital in Dikfer region in cooperation with TOKI and TIKA.
