New Regulation On Private Hospitals

The Regulation on Private Hospitals (“Regulation”) published in the Official Gazette dated 30.01.2025 and numbered 32798 repealed the Regulation on Private Hospitals (“repealed Regulation”) published in the Official Gazette dated 27.03.2002 and numbered 24708. While some of the provisions of the repealed Regulation are repeated, a number of amendments have been introduced with the Regulation. Below is a brief summary of those changes:

While the repealed Regulation covered hospitals owned by natural persons and private legal entities, excluding hospitals owned by the state, special provincial administrations, municipalities, universities and other public legal entities, the new Regulation covers hospitals owned by natural persons or private legal entities, excluding orthodontic and dental hospitals.

No new private hospital license will be issued for a period of five years for real persons and private legal entities related to which license has been revoked. However, this condition will not apply to private hospitals licensed or obtained preliminary permission on the date of publication of the Regulation.

Pursuant to the Regulation, private hospitals will provide services in detached buildings that meet the physical conditions specified in Annex-5 of the Regulation. Under the new provision, private hospitals must obtain an accreditation certificate from the Turkish Health Services Quality and Accreditation Institute (TÜSKA) within three years from the date of licensing. In hospitals that are not able to obtain an accreditation certificate, an information sign stating “This hospital does not have a TÜSKA accreditation certificate” must be displayed in a way that patients can see. Private hospitals licensed and in operation before the publication date of the Regulation must obtain an accreditation certificate from TÜSKA within three years at the latest.

The Regulation requires that the physical infrastructure, bed capacity and medical units of private hospitals should comply with certain standards. Observation beds will not exceed 25% of the total bed capacity. While operating rooms are not mandatory in hospitals serving internal specialties, other hospitals must have the necessary intensive care units and special intensive care units according to the specialty. Hospitals are also required to have a pharmacy, an emergency room and a certain number of palliative care beds. Compliance with the personnel standards, physical conditions and the obligation to have a radiology center specified in the Regulation is mandatory by 31/12/2025.

Planning will be carried out by the Ministry of Health (“Ministry”) for healthcare institutions and organizations in areas such as healthcare workforce, medical service units and their qualifications, and distribution of technology-intensive medical devices. The bed capacity, specialized centers, units, medical devices, specialties, and the number of staff that can be allocated to private hospitals will be determined.

Within the framework of these announced plans, a planning conformity certificate will be issued for those requests deemed appropriate for the opening of new hospitals and changes in specialized centers, units, medical devices, specialist doctor positions, or bed capacity in existing hospitals. If preliminary permission is not obtained within 2 years from the issuance of this certificate, the planning conformity certificate will be canceled.

The preliminary permission, which was required to be obtained before the opening of a hospital under the repealed Regulation, will also be required under the new Regulation before starting any renovation work for converting a building into a hospital, and before the construction of an additional building.

While the period for obtaining a license from the date of the preliminary permission was 5 years in the repealed Regulation, it is regulated as 3 years with the new Regulation. Those who fail to obtain a license at the end of three years period will have their preliminary permission revoked. As regulated in the repealed Regulation, the license granted to a private hospital that fails to obtain an operating permit and start patient admission and treatment within six months from the date of licensing will be revoked by the Ministry. The application for an operating license will be made by licensed private hospitals through the Integrated Corporate Action Platform (“EKİP”) together with the documents listed in Annex 10 of the Regulation.

A number of new rules have been introduced regarding medical records and archives. Data of patients applying to private hospitals will be recorded electronically and that a health information management system in the registration system of the Ministry will be used for recording and archiving the data.

It is stated that the provisions of the Regulation on Promotion and Information Activities in Health Services published in the Official Gazette dated 29.07.2023 and numbered 32263 shall apply to the information and promotion activities to be carried out by health institutions.

Some additional issues are regulated in the new “Prohibitions” article. Accordingly, it is forbidden for clinical services in the specialties listed in the hospital operation permit to be provided by third parties, for a private hospital to operate in a location other than the building designated for the license, and to charge additional fees for healthcare services that are not subject to additional charges under emergency healthcare services, in violation of the provisions of the regulations.

Finally, in a hospital where operations are temporarily suspended, in whole or in part, due to deficiencies identified during inspections, if the deficiencies are not corrected within six months from the date of suspension, the license will be suspended by the Ministry and an additional six month period will be granted. While these periods were 1 year under the repealed Regulation, they have been set to 6 months under the new Regulation.