Health Minister Dr. Fahrettin Koca participated in the program held at the Ministry's Bilkent Campus for the 7-13 August National Medical Rescue Team Week and attended by National Medical Rescue Team volunteers from 81 provinces.
Expressing that they would celebrate the week of August 7-13 as the "National Medical Rescue Team week" starting this year, Koca stated that National Medical Rescue Team volunteers are the pride of our nation by undertaking critical tasks in disasters.
"We have to make changes at the institutional and social level"
Koca stated that they cared about National Medical Rescue Team’s having a more qualified and innovative development process in the future and added "We have to do this. We know from bitter experience that earthquakes are the undeniable reality of the geography we live in. In order to live the future in a safer and healthier way, we need to make the necessary changes at the institutional and social level based on the lessons we have learned.”
Reminding that National Medical Rescue Team was established in 2003 under the umbrella of emergency healthcare services with the lessons learned from the Marmara earthquake, Koca said, "Today, we have 15,200 National Medical Rescue Team volunteers organized in 30 regions and 81 provinces. We determined the procedures and principles of the processes to make healthcare services effective and efficient by issuing the regulations for healthcare services in disasters and emergencies in 2020. All of our National Medical Rescue Team volunteers have the World Health Organization's International EMT Type 2 verification".
"We will make the National Medical Rescue Team a structure that provides search and rescue and medical support"
Pointing out that the greatest need was for the search and rescue team in the Kahramanmaraş earthquakes, Koca stated, "For this reason, we have decided for the National Medical Rescue Team, which was established mostly for medical aid, to have search and rescue activities. We are creating a structure called National Medical Rescue Team ATAK under the umbrella of National Medical Rescue Team. The National Medical Rescue Team volunteers will receive national and international certified trainings, and they will also carry out early-term rescue activities in earthquakes and other disasters from now on. We will make this volunteering movement, which is rarely seen in the world, a structure that provides both search and rescue and medical support."
National Medical Rescue Team to take a more active role in search and rescue with "Atak" vehicles
Emphasizing that all the staff worked devotedly, Koca continued as follows:
"The number of National Medical Rescue Team volunteers is 15,200. We know that our citizens expect search and rescue activities from the National Medical Rescue Team, which reaches the field in the early period of the disasters and emergencies to provide medical support. Seeing the situation, we created a structure called 'National Medical Rescue Team Atak' under the National Medical Rescue Team to carry out search and rescue activities in addition to medical rescue services. We will increase the number of volunteers every day and we will ensure that they assume a more effective function in emergencies and disasters.”
Thanking all the volunteers, Koca said, "I would like to remind you that 15,200 people, consisting only of voluntary healthcare professionals, are part of a rare structure which provides both medical services and search and rescue services.”
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