İYİ Party's Çömez reacts to Minister Memişoğlu over 'disgrace': 'As long as you are in office...'

During the budget negotiations for the Ministry of Health for 2025, İYİ Party Group Deputy Chairman Turhan Çömez called on Minister of Health Kemal Memişoğlu to resign, stating, "These disgraces occurred while you were in office," regarding the newborn gang. 

Stating that there were complaints and reports even when Minister of Health Kemal Memişoğlu was the Istanbul Provincial Health Director, Çömez invited Minister Memişoğlu to resign. The statements made by Çömez in the General Assembly are as follows:

"DID MÜEZZİNOĞLU GIVE YOU AN ORDER?"

"It has been discussed for weeks, and the problems experienced regarding the newborn gangs are being voiced one by one. However, the Minister insistently says, ‘I have no fault, no mistake. I am the one who dismantled this gang.’ It has been discussed many times; a report was prepared in 2016, and this report is still at the Istanbul Provincial Health Directorate and the Ministry of Health. It says to file a criminal complaint, and it contains very serious provisions.

The hospitals we are discussing today have been written down one by one, the events have been voiced one by one, the problems experienced have been addressed one by one, and the Ministry of Health is being told, ‘Please file a criminal complaint regarding this.’

The Minister of Health became the Provincial Health Director on October 6, 2016. This report was presented to him while he was the Provincial Health Director. While this report contained such serious expressions, Mr. Minister, why did you not do what was necessary as the Istanbul Provincial Health Director regarding this?

Were you afraid, did you want to cover it up, or did Mehmet Müezzinoğlu, who was the Minister of Health at the time, give you an order? This is a very grave incident. Anyone who has a signature or negligence behind such an incident has an obligation to explain it under this roof.

"HE DELIVERED THE INVESTIGATION DOCUMENT TO THE HOSPITAL"

The Minister says, ‘We learned about it with a report made to CİMER in March 2023.’ There is a statement in the court file, Malik Türkay Esin. Who is this? He is the Minister's civil servant; they work together at the Provincial Health Directorate. He says, ‘I inspected these hospitals in January 2023,’ and he wrote them all down. What was happening, just like the report in 2016. Names, hospitals, what happened, that terrible disgrace, how children were neglected, how the state was robbed, it was written here in January 2023. Three months before the date the Minister says, ‘We learned about this in March 2023.’ You covered up the first report, but didn't you see this research done as your civil servant, or did you see it and cover it up?

The Minister says, ‘When I learned about this, I launched a very secret operation’ on May 5, 2023. After this secret operation, another document emerges in August 2023. A tip comes to the Minister's civil servants from a hospital while he was the Istanbul Provincial Health Director, and they say, ‘An illegal clinic is operating here.’ They go to that clinic in the middle of the night, they examine it, and they find all the documents of the gang leader doctor who is in prison today in that clinic.

They find stacks of files of the newborn gang, they find fake files regarding home care services. They sent that report to the Provincial Health Directorate. This file was covered up again. I found this report in the documents of the closed REYAP hospital. The Ministry of Health took the documents of the investigation and delivered them to the hospital, sending this document to REYAP saying, ‘Be aware, we are secretly inspecting you, there is a disgrace here. Take your precautions.’ Would you look at how this system has rotted?

"I WANTED TO GIVE THE DOCUMENTS TO THE COURT, THEY DID NOT ACCEPT"

At the time he said, ‘I am conducting a secret operation,’ the Minister visited the most important of those hospitals and the hospital where many children died. The Minister went to Medilife Hospital, and photos were taken pose by pose.

This is a visit made after the date the Minister said, ‘I am conducting a secret operation,’ on July 11, 2023. Meanwhile, the minister is conducting a very secret operation. Exactly 10 of our little ones died after July 11. I shared the documents of these disgraces because I wanted to give them to the court, but they did not accept them. I shared them on a television program, and the program was fined because I shared them.

They say, ‘We inspected the hospitals.’ If you inspected them and could not find this disgrace, shame on you. If you did not inspect them and these children died because of that, it is even more of a shame. We are facing such a grave, serious reality that ‘I dismantled the gang, I, you know, I conducted secret operations.’

No, Mr. Minister, these disgraces occurred while you were in office, while you were responsible—both as Provincial Health Director and as Minister of Health—and for this, you need to apologize to this nation and resign. You cannot be the Minister of Health in this country." 

News Source: 12punto