Deputy Minister of Health Dr. Şuayip Birinci attended the Turkey Entrepreneur Summit in Konya held by the Entrepreneurial Businessmen Foundation (GIV).
Emphasizing that health investments in Turkey have improved a lot with investments such as the family practice system, e-Pulse application, city hospitals, Birinci said that they have started monitoring everyone since March 1, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Birinci said: “As of March 1, we were checking everyone coming from abroad. We would admit them to the hospital if they developed symptoms." Noting that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Health Personnel Mental Support Application (RUHSAD) was developed to support healthcare workers with heir mental problems, Birinci added that this application allowed them to be examined remotely.
Stating that the Life Fits Home application (HES) has 75 million users, and nearly 9 billion HES codes had been generated, Birinci continued, “We have created a COVID-19 database because we made use of interesting ideas in this process. We have developed a considerable capacity. Our system can operate with the systems of many other ministries. We are the most digitalized ministry in the world."
Birinci said that contact-tracing points were monitored in real-time and added, "These teams have traveled around the world 225 times, 9 million kilometers. We have also introduced a single phone number so that they can also use their own mobile phones."
Noting that non-essential cases were suspended when the pandemic started and the hospital capacity was reduced to allow COVID-19 patients to be treated, Birinci said, “We managed the pandemic with data. The data allowed us to achieve such a successful result. We were tracking in real-time the capacities and occupancy rates of each and every hospital across the country."
At the end of the program, the 8th GIV Entrepreneurship Awards were handed out in 9 different categories. Deputy Minister Birinci received the award for the Best Public Administrator.
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