ANKARA: An Istanbul prosecutor has charged 47 people, including doctors and nurses, over inappropriate treatment of children for profit, causing the deaths of at least 10 newborns in one of Turkey’s biggest health scandals in recent years.
The indictment stated that the Ministry of Health closed nine private hospitals as a result of the investigation, while 19 health institutions were considered responsible.
The suspects are accused of forming a criminal group to place newborns in some private hospitals and receiving payments from the Turkish Social Security Authority for inappropriate and sometimes fake treatments, according to the indictment obtained by the website. Reuters He said.
The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) sought a parliamentary investigation into the issue and called for the resignation of Health Minister Kemal Memisoglu.
He said that his ministry’s inspections of hospitals will now be done “more stringently than ever before.”
Two of the suspects, working an emergency phone line, were searching for newborn babies who could be sent to these hospitals for treatment in intensive care, according to the 1,399-page indictment, which was submitted to an Istanbul court last week.
She said that the newborns then became victims of malpractice or inadequate medical care, as the medicines intended for them were sold to others and some of them died from the infections they contracted in the units.
She added that the criminal gang’s goal was “to obtain financial gains, not to improve the health conditions of patients.”
The indictment stated that the suspects, including two doctors and 11 nurses, denied the accusations, saying that they did not intentionally send newborns to certain hospitals and that the children received the necessary treatment.
The charges facing the suspects include forming a criminal group, fraud, forging official documents, and negligent homicide. Some of the defendants could be sentenced to up to 589 years in prison if found guilty.
22 suspects were detained pending trial.