Turkish prosecutor charges 47 people over newborn deaths, ET HealthWorld

Ankara: A prosecutor in Istanbul has charged 47 people, including doctors and nurses, over the inappropriate treatment of babies for profit, killing at least 10 newborns in one of Turkey’s biggest health scandals in recent years.

The Health Ministry has closed nine private hospitals as a result of the investigation, with a total of 19 healthcare facilities deemed responsible, the complaint said.

The suspects are accused of creating a criminal group to place newborns in certain private hospitals and receive payments from Turkey’s social security agency for inappropriate and sometimes fake treatments, according to the indictment obtained by Reuters.

The main opposition CHP party has requested a parliamentary investigation into the case and called for the resignation of Health Minister Kemal Memisoglu. He has said that his ministry’s inspections of hospitals will now be carried out “more stringently than ever”.

Two of the suspects, who worked on an emergency phone line, had sought newborns who could be sent to these hospitals for treatment in intensive care, according to the 1,399-page indictment filed in an Istanbul court last week.

It said newborns then became victims of malpractice or inadequate medical care, with medications intended for them being sold to others and some dying from infections contracted in the units.

The criminal gang’s aim was “to obtain financial gain, rather than improving the health status of patients,” it added.

The suspects, including two doctors and 11 nurses, denied the allegations, saying they did not intentionally send the newborns to certain hospitals and that the babies had received necessary treatment, the indictment said.

The suspects are accused of, among other things, forming a criminal group, fraud, falsification of official documents and negligent homicide. Some defendants could be sentenced to as many as 589 years in prison if found guilty.

Twenty-two suspects are in custody awaiting trial.

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