Serious accusation against Minister Memişoğlu: 'He neglected the investigation while he was Provincial Health Director'

The AKP source stated that the state's awareness of the scandal in question dates back to December 2023. The AKP member, who stated that former Health Minister Fahrettin Koca granted permission for the investigation into this matter, noted that during the period when the current Minister of Health, Kemal Memişoğlu, was the Istanbul Provincial Health Director, "the directorate was under scrutiny."

The AKP member, who claimed that Memişoğlu neglected the investigation, said, "I cannot stomach the fact that the Provincial Health Director of that period, who did not initiate his own investigation and did not even assign a single inspector, thereby knowingly or unknowingly causing this matter to drag on and perhaps leading to the deaths of hundreds more babies, is now sitting in the Ministry seat."

The AKP member who called Fatih Altaylı shared new details regarding the "newborn gang" scandal. The AKP member, who said, "I see that our people will cover up this disgrace as well. I know that if I told these things to a journalist from our side, they wouldn't write them; on the contrary, they would complain about me to the top levels of the party and the government. That is why I am telling you these things," summarized the event as follows: 

"THE COMPLAINT COMES TO CIMER IN MARCH 2023..."

“Everything starts on March 27, 2023, when a citizen calls saying, 'Some things are happening in private hospitals in Istanbul.' CIMER receives this report on May 2, that is, almost a month and a half later, at the Private Hospitals department of the Istanbul Provincial Health Directorate. For some reason, the report is held for nearly two months. Anyway, we cannot know that, but let's continue. Provincial Health Directorates of the province where they are located inspect private hospitals. If there is an unusual situation, the Ministry of Health is informed. When this report arrives, the Private Hospitals Unit of the Provincial Health Directorate sends this letter to the Istanbul Police. However, this is still being hidden; there is no mention in the statements or posts made about when the Provincial Health Directorate sent this letter. They cut that part out of the document. So, we don't know if they sent it immediately or late, if there was negligence of duty there, or if there was an attempt to neglect or hide it.

What the Provincial Health Directorate should have done immediately here is this; a serious allegation has come to CIMER, this allegation has reached you, albeit late, and you have been informed. What should you do as the Provincial Health Director? Of course, shouldn't you have immediately assigned at least one inspector, or perhaps even formed a group of inspectors!

After doing this, the second task would be to cooperate with the police and ensure that technical surveillance is carried out if necessary. If you reach a finding, it would be to immediately close the relevant hospitals.

And while doing all this, it would be to notify the SGK (Social Security Institution), another institution harmed by this business, to ask them to conduct their own investigations, and to ensure that the SGK stops payments to these hospitals and applies for legal remedies to recover the payments already made.

"THE HEALTH DIRECTORATE DID NOT ASSIGN AN INSPECTOR"

However, the Health Directorate of the period does none of these; there is an inspection, but it is superficial. They did not assign an inspector. There is no report. There is no notification to the SGK. Look at the statements, even. The person in charge of the Private Hospitals Unit says these reports existed before. But there is no inspection. They are content with notifying the police about the incident, and we don't even know when they did that because they censored that part from the document that was released.

Fortunately, the Police take this matter seriously and a prosecutor's investigation is launched. Of course, we understand this later. Because the Ministry of Justice calls the Ministry of Health after a while. The Ministry of Justice tells the Ministry of Health, 'Such and such a report has been received. We will deepen the investigation regarding this. But we need permission. We are requesting permission from you to conduct an investigation and technical surveillance.'

The Ministry of Health grants permissions for both the investigation and surveillance, and the Minister personally assigns an inspector from Ankara to investigate this incident in Istanbul.

"FAHRETTIN KOCA INITIATES THE INVESTIGATION"

I don't remember the exact date, but I know it was in December 2023. The Minister is also Fahrettin Koca. You get angry at him for being a cultist or something, but he is the one who initiated the investigation.

So, this matter was known by the state. This investigation had been ongoing since December 2023, and the Istanbul Provincial Health Directorate was under scrutiny. This incident exploded now, but its beginning dates back to March 2023. The prosecutor's investigation of Istanbul has also been going on for nearly 1 year. The reason it exploded now is that the technical surveillance has just finished and the file has now matured. You already know that the investigation was leaked and there were threats against the prosecutors.”

"I CANNOT STOMACH THE PROVINCIAL HEALTH DIRECTOR OF THAT PERIOD SITTING IN THE MINISTRY SEAT"

(So why are you telling me these things? To protect former Minister Fahrettin Koca?)

“No, Mr. Fatih, what do I care about the former minister. The reason I am telling you these things is so that this matter is not closed and forgotten. So that this lack of conscience is known. Let me be clear. I cannot stomach the fact that the Provincial Health Director of that period, who did not do this investigation properly, who neglected it, who did not lift a finger other than formally notifying the police, who did not initiate his own investigation, and who did not even assign a single inspector, thereby knowingly or unknowingly causing this matter to drag on and perhaps leading to the deaths of hundreds more babies, is now sitting in the Ministry seat. You will say, if he didn't sit there, would you have sat there? Of course, I wouldn't have sat there, but if the rot in the state has reached the point of making someone like this a Minister, if a health director under such an investigation can be made a minister, my conscience does not accept this, Mr. Fatih. Money, greed, theft, corruption, we understand, but here the lives of babies and the pain of their families are at stake. And those who do this are healthcare professionals. There is nothing beyond that. No one other than you would easily write these things. We are AKP members, yes, and you sometimes say very harsh words to us; we also know that you are right in some of them, but even we trust you, Mr. Fatih.”