Health Minister Dr. Fahrettin Koca visited Sakarya to attend the ambulance handover ceremony and opening of the Kidney Transplant Center at Sakarya University Training and Research Hospital. He also conducted on-site examination at the New Maternal Ward under construction.
Following his visit to Governor of Sakarya, Dr. Koca made a press statement, and talked about the importance of Sakarya for health tourism, in particular its thermal facilities.
“Throughout the last 16 years, with AK Party in power, investments of TRY 22 billion were made, of which 500 million was used in the field of health. And these investments include 17 hospitals out of 47 healthcare facilities. We particularly attach great importance to completion of 250-bed obstetrics and pediatric hospital in Sakarya, and we accelerated the process to ensure opening of the hospital by the end of November 2019 instead of April 2020” said Dr. Koca.
He also mentioned about the ongoing process of building a 1000-bed city hospital in Sakarya, and added that the tender process would be completed within a year.
Dr. Koca also added that they will make efforts to carry out any and all treatments in Sakarya without the need to transfer the patients to the other cities, and for this aim, they will donate Sakarya with the diversity of specialties, human resources, qualified manpower and technology.
In response to a question from one of the press members about the new design of the cigarette packages, Dr. Koca said: “We continue our fight against smoking with determination. We are working in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture. The new regulation increases the graphic health warning areas on cigarette packs to discourage the people from smoking.Furthermore, all products will have to be sold in plain standardized packaging, with uniform colors, fonts and font sizes.The graphic health warnings, which previously covered 65 percent of the packages, will now cover 85 percent. The main aim is to decrease attraction of smoking. Brand logos will be completely removed while the brand names will cover only 5 percent of the package with a determined standard color”.
Health Minister attended the opening ceremony of the Kidney Transplant Center at Sakarya University Training and Research Hospital. Following the ceremony, he visited the patients and wished them swift recovery. Dr. Koca then conducted on-site examination at the 250-bed obstetrics and pediatrics hospital under construction.
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