The aim of the ‘Health Tourism Event’ is to create connections and networking opportunities between you (professional or citizen/consumer) and 90 participating Turkish hospitals, clinics, Dutch and Turkish medical tourism agencies, health institutions, insurance companies, doctors and investors in the health sector.
How to participate?
Exhibition part is free for everyone after registering.
B2B part is for institutions and companies that have received a private invitation from the organizers ALZ Fair & Go Fair.
Are you a health insurer (purchaser)? Join a group of the Chamber of Commerce Netherlands-Turkiye foundation (CCNT) that has already built up relationships with the Turkish organizers. Send an email with your company contact details, or call 06-391 102 43. B2B participants also have access to the conferences, the international networking cocktail reception and the event itself.
Location: Postillion Hotel & Convention Centre, Paul van Vlissingenstraat 9-11, Amsterdam (Google Maps).
Next step: Healthcare Delegation to Turkiye
Would you like to take a look at local (modern, new) hospitals, elderly care institutions, clinics for bariatric surgery, gastroenterology, oncology, etc. in Turkiye under the guidance of a market specialist and interpreter? Would you like to personally meet a Turkish healthcare provider? Participate in the Health Care Trade Mission that will be facilitated in the autumn by the CCNT in collaboration with a local partner in Turkiye. Send your company contact data and specifications.
The biggest gain can be made by mapping out the top clinical institutions in Turkiye and subsequently making agreements and contracts. Any obstacles regarding adequate and high-quality care is then removed because it will be arranged by contract while the offer is formally described.
‘Work to be done’ will be to establish a coherent ICT. It goes without saying that ICT systems are not set up in such a way that the information flows between NL and TR can be exchanged. This is definitely going to have to be done. However, it should be borne in mind that healthcare in Turkiye is professional and that the ICT systems can easily be compared to those in the Netherlands when it comes to the degree of professional development.
Entrepreneurial initiative: Turkish information health care center, Rotterdam
The intention of the Turkish healthcare sector is to build a permanent Turkish information care center in Rotterdam. Although the exact role, structure and services are still open to be defined, this center will undoubtedly lead to high expectations among potential customers and more ‘traffic’ between the Netherlands and Turkiye.
Turkish care for Dutch frictions
In the past, a number of cross-border care initiatives were prompted on the one hand by large waiting lists for Dutch care and also to bridge cultural differences and thus enable faster treatment. Ultimately, lower costs for the insurer.
In recent years we have seen a “dramatic” increase in waiting lists for health care. Hospitals, nursing home care, mental health care and youth care are faced with waiting times that can run up to many months. Acute care is still guaranteed. Although this is at the expense of elective care, which puts further pressure on waiting lists. The two corona years have of course had a negative impact in terms of waiting lists. Oncological care has fallen considerably behind.
Staff shortages, being less attractive as an employer, working long hours, high absenteeism due to illness and constantly lagging behind the facts do not increase job satisfaction within Dutch healthcare institutions. Absenteeism rates of more than 15% are no exception. Working in many healthcare institutions is difficult, with the result that medical specialists and general practitioners want to follow a course to become a company doctor. Currently there are already 60 doctors in training (source: board member of the Chamber of Commerce Netherlands-TürkiyeFoundation, Oude Gracht Group, Stichting Praktijkopleiding Arbo Professionals).
Insurers have a duty of (health) care towards insured persons, which is becoming increasingly difficult to fulfil. On a daily basis, Zorgklacht.nl receives calls from insured persons asking whether they can mediate towards their insurer for receiving care.
The Health and Youth Care Inspectorate (IGJ) observes that the number of clinics and agencies that will offer different types of care is still increasing. That is not always a good development. Care fraud and not always clear quality of care is not desirable. Nevertheless, it does contribute somewhat to reducing the waiting lists.
Hedging risks
In recent years, Turkiye has proven to be a reliable partner when it comes to relations with the Netherlands. Many relationships within and between entrepreneurs and governments have led to good agreements with ditto services. It therefore seems time to seriously use the care provided by Turkish healthcare providers for Dutch patients, whether they are of Turkish origin or not.
Certainly bad examples have been mentioned in the media about the care in Turkiye from time to time. This reporting is without doubt tendentious. After all, these always concern clinics where, in particular, plastic surgery, Botox, Fillers, etc. take place. This is also a sector in the Netherlands where the quality of care cannot always be followed.
Furthermore, clients or patients often take an unnecessarily high risk by (conveniently and cheaper) having several medical procedures performed during one visit to Turkiye, which can have an effect on each other. A second mistake is that people use Google to quickly search any Turkish healthcare provider. It is less risky to hire a local, Dutch-Turkish-speaking expert or intermediary who has already conducted market research. The CCNT can possibly mediate here in collaboration with local partners (Contact CCNT).
In any case, it is important to establish a professional connection between the two countries. It will then be clear that, despite the distance, care can be provided at a high level at low(er) costs.
Interested in long-term care solutions between NL and TR? Ask for a meeting with the CCNT, which has short communication lines of communication with the Turkish Embassy in The Hague and relevant sector representatives in Turkiye. Send an email with your company contact details, or call 06-391 102 43 (Ethem Emre).
