Like its namesake, Professor Murat Dilmener Emergency Hospital, has quickly won a reputation as a leading name in Turkish health care.
The hospital, built in an unused site at Atatürk Airport, Istanbul’s former aviation hub, relieves the COVID-19 pandemic’s burden of patients from the other hospitals in the city.
With its 1,008 beds, the hospital was constructed immediately after the pandemic made its foray into Turkey in March. It is one of two hospitals built on Istanbul’s Asian and European sides in less than two months in response to the lingering outbreak. Istanbul, the most populated city in the country, has long had the highest number of cases.
It stands out among its peers with its architecture and the advanced medical technologies it uses. Built on a space of 125,000 square meters, the hospital has 16 operating rooms and 432 intensive care unit beds.
The hospital takes its name from Murat Dilmener, a health care doyen who died on May 3 at the age of 79, after losing his battle against the coronavirus. A member of the prestigious Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine, Dilmener is known for his charity work, namely offering free treatment to poor patients. The new hospital also has a memorial corner for Dilmener where his personal possessions and photos are exhibited.
Professor Gökhan Tolga Adaş, the chief physician at the Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital who also runs the new pandemic hospital, says it filled an important gap in the fight against the pandemic.
