Turkey to reopen doors for health tourists from 31 countries on May 20

Turkey will accept patients from 31 countries as of May 20 as it loosens coronavirus restrictions, according to the country's Health Ministry.

An official letter from the ministry lists acceptance conditions for patients, entry to the country, admission to hospital, treatment, discharge and isolation rules.

It also notes the measures to be taken for the patients and their attendants.

The countries include Iraq, Libya, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Greece, Ukraine, Russia, Djibouti, Algeria, Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Moldova, Somalia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

The patients of orthopedics and traumatology, general surgery, pediatric surgery, urology, eye diseases, cardiology, cardiovascular surgery, surgical oncology, gynecologic oncology surgery, medical oncology, radiation oncology, brain and nerve surgery, hematology, intensive care, assisted-reproduction treatment applications, organ transplantation and bone marrow transplantation, will be accepted into the country.

The patients will be registered to the patient chart of the International Health Services Inc. (USHAS) and following the pre-approval, their permission letter will be sent to the related institutions. Documents needed for the pre-approval will be announced by USHAS.

At most two attendants per patient will be allowed into the country. The patients and the attendants will go through COVID-19 PCR test or samples will be taken for the PCR test for a fee, when entering Turkey from the airports or border gates.

If there is COVID-19 test available in their home country, patients are required to take the test within 48 hours prior to their travel and bring negative COVID-19 PCR test result paper along with them.

Only COVID-19 negative individuals will be accepted into the country.

After entering Turkey, the patients and their attendants will be directly taken to the hospital where they have an appointment and they will not be accommodated anywhere else.

One floor or corridor of the hospital will be allocated only for the patients coming from abroad.