Partially opened in August, Konya City Hospital was formally inaugurated by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday in the eponymous central province. It is the 16th city hospital Turkey has opened recently as part of its new health care concept. The opening comes at a time of heightened need for more beds as the country combats the coronavirus pandemic.
A sprawling complex with 1,250 beds, including 256 intensive care beds, the hospital is actually a composite of multiple hospitals specialized in different branches of medicine.
Located at the heart of Konya, which is situated south of the capital Ankara, the hospital boasts 380 clinics and 49 surgery rooms over a space of 421,566 square meters (104 acres). A trigeneration system ensures the complex’s power supply is uninterrupted.
The hospital started operating with 838 beds on Aug. 5 and has since seen an immense flow of patients and about 6,000 surgeries. More importantly, it relieved other hospitals in the province of patient overload by serving as the main hospital to treat patients for diseases and illnesses other than COVID-19.
“City hospitals are the peak of our health care system, and Konya hospital is among the biggest of them,” Erdoğan said at the opening ceremony.
