Turkey to implement British model for military medical services

Turkey will implement the British model in providing military medical services after it transferred all military medical academies to the Health Ministry, the health minister has said, underlining that the new model will increase the quality and efficiency of the service provided to the army.
"Britain made this reform 20 years ago by transferring all of its military medical academies to the Health Ministry. The model we have in our mind is similar to the British model. With this model, we believe medical services to be provided to the military will be much more efficient," Health Minister Recep Akdağ told the Hürriyet Daily News on Oct. 11. 

Turkey decided to shut down military medical academies in the aftermath of the July 15 coup attempt as part of a major re-structuring of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in a bid to remove members of the Gülen movement from the army after they were blamed for the coup. 

The military's two major medical academies in Ankara and in Istanbul, as well as hospitals in different provinces of the country, were transferred to the Health Ministry through a decree law issued by the government in late July. Around 2,000 military doctors have been dismissed while some of them have been detained on suspicions that they were linked to the Gülen group. 

But the government's decision to close military medical academies has created concerns as to whether the required surgeons can be trained by the civilian authority. 

"These concerns are baseless. They shouldn't speak about providing military medicine," Akdağ said, recalling that the army had only five doctors specially trained to serve on the battlefield and only two psychiatrists. Almost all the military doctors who were serving in military academies were...