City Hospitals: The Last Attire of Privatisation in the Turkish Health System

Abstract

As the health system has been sharply undergoing a series of changes in Turkey and the rest of the world, critical political and economic arguments are required to assess the capitalist relationships that exist behind the scenes of such changes. In this respect, the Health Transformation Program, implemented by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) since 2003, will be the focal point of the study. This research will also examine how the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model has been penetrating the health system while leading the transformation in the provision of public services. The latest example of the privatisation of healthcare is the City Hospitals built under the PPP model as part of the second phase of the Health Transformation Program. The study comprehensively explores the City Hospitals’ legal, political, and economic context. The article, fundamentally, concluded that the City Hospitals continuing to be built by the Public-Private Partnership contracts do not mean the right to equal access to healthcare because these are the lucrative areas of investment and capital transfer for the contractor companies.