What is known about health workers' insurance scam reportedly led to hundreds of newborns’ death in Turkey?

Duvar English

A recently proclaimed investigation regarding an “organization” of health workers defrauding insurance system by killing newborns in Istanbul has been stirring Turkey.

According to the indictment, the health workers in several hospitals acted in close connection with emergency medical dispatchers, referring the newborns to the neonatal units of these hospitals.

The suspects aimed to collect high fees from the insurance system by making the newborns’ conditions appear more severe than they actually were, ensuring that they were hospitalized for longer than they should have been, obtaining financial benefits by taking extra money from some patients' relatives, and sharing the majority of the profits with suspected members of the organization, Ferhat Yaşar from Duvar reported.

The suspects reportedly increased the profit obtained in neonatal intensive care units 3-4 times with these procedures.

This process reportedly led to the death of hundreds of babies, as known for now. 

The denounciation that initiated the investigation was made in March 27, 2023 to the presidential complaint system CİMER.

“REYAP Hospital Intensive Care Doctor Fırat Sarı and İlker Gönen are defrauding (the insurance). They rented the neonatal intensive care units of many hospitals and did not have a doctor on call at night. Many babies have died inhuman deaths due to medically inappropriate conditions. They always show the patient as 3rd step in epicrises when they should be 1st step. They bribe dispatchers and control centers to buy babies. They have earned millions of liras in this way for years and have caused the deaths of hundreds of babies,” it said.

So far, 19 hospitals have been detected for their involvement in the process. 

As of Oct. 19, the Health Ministry revoked the licences of nine of these hospitals.

One of these hospitals, private-run Özel Avcılar Hospital is owned by former Health Minister Mehmet Müezzinoğlu.

“I received information from the hospital management, so I feel very comfortable. My colleagues are people who do their job well. We are already undergoing 6-7 inspections. I am conscientiously comfortable,” Müezzinoğlu told Oda TV on Oct. 18.

Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu on Oct. 18 announced that they “have been working day and night since May 2023” to gather more information about the organization and prevent them.

“I want people to know that we have been fighting against illegality since the past, that we fight against malpractices or those who violate the lives, property or health rights of our people absolutely and without exception,” he added.

Memişoğlu was the Istanbul Provincial Health Director of the ministry between 2016 and 2024.

The conversations between the suspects

Meanwhile, more information has come to light regarding the investigation, including the messages between the suspects.

The messages reportedly showed that some of the suspects deliberately killed the newborns.

According to the indictment, the suspects told the family of a baby they caused the death of, “If you don't bring the money within three days, we will bury him in an orphan cemetrey, you won't even find its grave.”

In another example, two suspects exchanged these remarks in their conversation: 

-“Mehtap, kill the child, would there be a child with fifty saturation?”

-“I'm going to kill, but you know it's a problem even if I kill.”

The charges

47 suspects are included in the indictment with Fırat Sarı being the leader of the organization. Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç announced on Oct. 18 that 22 of them have been arrested so far. 

The indictment charges Fırat Sarı and İlker Gönen with “committing intentional homicide with negligent behavior”, “qualified fraud”, “establishing an organization with the aim of committing a crime” and “forgery of official documents,” and seeks prison sentences from 177 years and 6 months to 582 years and 9 months.

The prosecutors also seek a similar prison sentence for G.M.Ö., who worked at a public hospital and allegedly transferred babies to neonatal units at private hospitals under the control of F.S. and İ.Ö. in exchange for “financial benefit”, for the same charges.

A group of 18 people, including other doctors, nurses and health workers, are sought 10 to 437 years and six months in prison for “committing intentional homicide with negligent behavior.”

One of the suspects is Ahmet Atilla Yılmaz, main opposition CHP’s Beylikdüzü municipal council member, who is also in the Health and Epidemic Diseases Commission of the Istanbul Municipality, Tuğba Özer from Duvar reported.

The true extent of the damage and casualties caused by the organization is not known yet.