Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu announces: A new era begins in family medicine

Minister of Health Kemal Memişoğlu stated that they will prioritize family medicine in the new term and that 27 thousand family physicians will work as "health consultants."

Memişoğlu said, "We will integrate our Family Health Centers with 2nd and 3rd level healthcare institutions (hospitals)."

Meeting with Ankara representatives of media organizations, Minister Memişoğlu provided the following information regarding the Ministry's roadmap:

"While strengthening family medicine, which provides primary healthcare services, we will take steps to encourage our citizens to consult their family physicians. We will get to the root of the problems and strive to solve them fundamentally. We will elevate the institutional culture in our family health centers and integrate our centers with secondary and tertiary healthcare institutions.

When I started my ministerial role, the first place I visited was a family health center in Kahramanmaraş, and the second was a pharmacy. Strengthening is not something that I, as Minister, or we, as the Ministry, can do alone."

We will make this a social policy, we will make it the main policy of our Ministry. We will work to ensure that the healthcare system reaches an even better point for both healthcare workers and society. If people do not help to protect their own health, the public authority cannot succeed no matter what it does, because society needs to believe in this and be convinced of it.

I call city hospitals 'physical masterpieces of health.' We are planning city hospitals as areas where health knowledge regarding Turkey's future will be produced, where studies can be conducted, and where not only service will be provided, but also science and technology that will be Turkey's pride will be developed.

In city hospitals, only support services are managed by private firms. The development of the private sector also supports the advancement of the public sector. While some changes may be needed in city hospitals, creating a negative perception regarding these hospitals is wrong.

We are monitoring developments regarding mpox and COVID. However, there is no state of alarm at the moment. There are no issues regarding the supply of medication in pharmacies."